Vols are M'm! M'm! Good!

Then early in the second half there arose up a clatter — "Pee Wee, "Pee Wee'' — which confirmed things were going well for the home team.

Tennessee's 90-49 rout of Campbell on Thursday night at Thompson-Boling Arena sent everyone home for the holidays feeling a little cheerier about things.

"I've been on these guys pretty hard,'' said coach Buzz Peterson. "Tonight, I saw a lot of smiles.''

For a change, the Vols (6-4) didn't toy with a mid-major visitor. They put the hammer down on Campbell (2-6) with a dazzling offensive display, complemented by some energetic defense, albeit against an overmatched opponent.

A 50-point lead — 76-26 — afforded Peterson sufficient Christmas spirit to call off the dogs and empty the bench early in the second half.

By the time crowd favorite Pee Wee Gash reported to the scorer's table with 11:18 to play, it was clear there would be no tense finishes this night.

"Campbell is a better team than this,'' said Peterson. "It was just one of those nights when everything we put up went in.''

C.J. Watson shot his way out of a slump with a career-high 20 points before retiring with 13:56 to play. Watson was 6-of-7 overall and became the second Vol in three games to tie a school record by going 5-of-5 from 3-point range.

"It was probably just not shooting enough shots before and after practice,'' Watson said of his recent struggle. "This week I just got in the gym and took a lot of shots.''

Scooter McFadgon roared back from a one-game suspension to get his 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting.

Chris Lofton added 16. He was 3-of-4 beyond the arc to improve his nation-leading 3-point accuracy to 63.3 percent.

Collectively, the three perimeter starters were 11-of-13 from 3-point range.

"I'm loving that,'' said Gash, "because it's funny, they do that so much in practice.

"I'm so used to seeing it. Finally, tonight, it just all clicked together.''

The Vols, in fact, were on school-record pace from 3-point range. They were a scorching 13-of-15 when McFadgon's trey made it 76-26 with 14:10 to play.

However, the reserves made just one of seven treys — by Gash — to finish at 14-of-22, 63.6 percent. The school records are 15 and 70 percent.

Overall, the Vols shot 57.7 percent from the field, their fourth time in five games shooting in the 50s.

"Tennessee worked hard,'' said Campbell coach Robbie Laing. "They made the extra pass to get open looks tonight.''

The first half was easily the Vols' best of the season. Peterson would love to clone it for, say, February in Fayetteville.

UT shot 69.3 percent, hit eight of 10 3-pointers, and was 11-of-11 at the free-throw stripe. Pressure defense befuddled Campbell into 15 turnovers.

From Anthony Atkinson's 3-pointer to cut UT's lead to 15-13 with 13:20 to play, the Fighting Camels would trudge through a desert of 8:27 until reaching the oasis of another field goal.

The Vols, meanwhile, assembled a 17-0 run. Tennessee hit nine consecutive shots in opening a 37-15 lead.

Only an Atkinson trey at the buzzer prevented a 30-point UT lead at the half at 51-24.

Then Tennessee opened the second half with a 25-4 run.

"Coach kept telling us we'd been there before and let teams come back on us,'' said Watson. "We didn't want that to happen again.

"We kept attacking and it paid off.''

Vol Notes: Gash played 11 minutes and increased his career-scoring total from two to seven points. "He did a good job running the ball club,'' said Peterson. No one played more than 22 minutes. Watson's 5-of-5 3-point shooting put him in the company of Lofton (at New Mexico), Shane Carnes (1994-95) and Thaydeus Holden (2002-03) as co-single game record-holders at 100 percent for a minimum five attempts. The team gets three days off before reassembling Monday to prepare for the Dec. 30 visit from Nebraska. The Vols are two games above .500 for the first time this year.

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