Tennessee 65, Vanderbilt 66

Freshman Julian Phillips played some of his best minutes of the year Wednesday night at Vanderbilt, but it was a few seconds of dribbling that will be remembered. With 13 seconds left in the game, Phillips eschewed a wide-open dunk in favor of running more time off the clock. What could have been a two-possession game remained a two-point lead that turned into a one-point loss on Vanderbilt's 10th made three of the night, a dagger at the buzzer. 

Senior Santiago Vescovi had a chance to bail out his freshman teammate at the line with eight seconds left in the game, but missed on the front end of a one-and-one. One the game's final play Vescovi then left Vanderbilt's Tyrin Lawrence to help at the rim, but the dish went to Lawrence who hit the game-winner.

Those final 13 seconds marred what would have been a hard-fought road win. Tennessee did a lot right on the night, out-rebounding Vandy 37-29 and finishing with a better shooting percentage. When Vandy had to go on a fouling streak late to put Tennessee on the line, the Vols did a tremendous job of inbounding on five consecutive plays. The preview to this game worried about the bad juju that comes with playing in America's Worst Gym (tm) and what might happen if Vandy, a team that chucks a ton of threes up, actually hit them. Turns out 40% from behind the arc is the magic number. 

Up next: Missouri comes to Knoxville Saturday night at 6 p.m. (SECN). The Tigers are winners of four out of their last five games.