Vols' free throws pay off

However, with leading-scorer Scooter McFadgon banished to the bench Monday night, the Vols figured out they'd better listen.

Tennessee looked into the guys down low and Brandon Crump and Andre Patterson carried the Vols to a dicey 77-68 win over scrappy Belmont at Thompson-Boling Arena.

After a 19-point loss at New Mexico on Saturday, a frustrated Peterson said he had to have more than two points out of his starting frontcourt. Crump and Patterson gave him 38 Monday.

"We kind of did what we wanted to do tonight,'' said Peterson, "get that ball inside.''

Crump bounced back from a no-show at New Mexico with 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting against the too-short Bruins (2-6).

"With Scooter not being able to go and Major (Wingate) not being able to go, I knew the whole team needed me to be a leader,'' said Crump.

Patterson scored a career-high 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting as the Vols improved to 5-4.

Jemere Hendrix, the third inside man, found the range for a season-high eight points.

Chris Lofton scored 13.

McFadgon, UT's leading scorer at 15.8 points a game, sat out a one-game suspension for violation team rules.

Peterson said the rules involved showing up to practice on time and giving full effort for the duration of practice.

"Both of those rules were broken,'' Peterson said, referring to Sunday's practice after the Vols arrived home from New Mexico at 4 a.m.

Wingate also did not play. He was held out of the first half for being late to the team meal Monday. Peterson said he didn't play Wingate in the second half because Hendrix earned the extra minutes with his first-half contribution.

"The thing I'm trying to get is effort and energy,'' Peterson said. "I'm a firm believer that how you practice is the way you play. When you're not on time, you're being selfish.''

Once the game began, Crump and Patterson had to be selfish - on the offensive end.

"Scooter being out, I wanted to pick up my offensive game a little,'' Patterson said. "Just be aggressive, back him (McFadgon) up, help our team out.

"Jemere did a good job, too, coming in and scoring some extra points.''

The Vols needed them, seeing as how they blew 15 points of a 17-point first-half cushion.

From a 6-5 lead, the Vols put together a 14-0 run by feasting on Belmont turnovers.

Hendrix scored eight consecutive points to give UT its biggest lead, 32-15.

But instead of delivering the knockout punch, the Vols went into a funk that allowed Belmont to clear its head. The Bruins ripped off a 12-1 rally to get to 33-27 before Crump ended the half with a dunk.

UT eased out by as many as 10 points in the second half, but when Belmont's Nick Otis swished a 3-pointer with 2:44 to play to cut UT's lead to 65-63, another Chattanooga-sized disaster didn't seem out of the question.

"I didn't worry about that,'' said Patterson. "We learned from Chattanooga (an upset loss on Dec. 5). We knew Belmont was going to make a run. Any time you've got guys who can shoot the ball like that, you can make a run.''

Belmont shot 33 3-pointers, hitting 11. As for the Vols, when they desperately needed a basket, they looked inside.

Patterson scored with 2:20 left and Crump followed with a bucket to make it 69-63 with 1:35 left. From there, Tennessee made eight of 10 free throws to close it out.

"It wasn't pretty,'' said Peterson, "but a win's a win.''

A win one wouldn't expect to be that close, given the fact that UT shot 62.5 percent to Belmont's 38.3 and ruled the glass, 39-22.

Turnovers leveled the playing field. Belmont made only three the second half to UT's 12. The Bruins ended up launching 20 more shots.

"We're a better team than when we walked in here,'' said Belmont coach Rick Byrd, a Knoxville native and UT grad.

"You cannot play in fear like we did the first 15 minutes. I thought we competed hard the last 25 minutes.''

Byrd wasn't Belmont's only East Tennessean. Justin Hare, a freshman from Bradley Central, fired in 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting. Jese Snyder of Lenoir City scored 11.

The Vols are back in the arena Thursday against Campbell. McFadgon and Wingate are expected back in action.

Notebook: Dane Bradshaw started in McFadgon's place. UT transfer Boomer Herndon was in street clothes on the Belmont bench. Lofton's 5-of-5 3-point shooting at New Mexico tied the school single-game percentage record shared by Shane Carnes and Thaydeus Holden (each 5-of-5). Lofton hit his only trey against Belmont to improve his SEC-leading accuracy to 62.2 percent beyond the arc. The Vols have shot better than 50 percent in three of the past four games. They were a sizzling 76.5 (13-of-17) the second half against Belmont.

Mike Strange may be reached at 865-342-6276.