LAHAINA, Hawaii — Here it is only Thanksgiving and Tennessee was in midseason form Wednesday. Unfortunately for the Vols, that's midseason 2003-04.

In a 95-70 loss to No. 15 Texas in the third-place game of the EA Sports Maui Invitational, these Vols looked a lot like last year's road Vols.

Translation: Porous defense plus questionable shot selection equals bad loss.

Tennessee comes home from this Pacific paradise at 1-2, both defeats coming at the hands of top-15 ranked teams. As was the case in Tuesday's 94-81 loss to 11th-ranked North Carolina, the Vols were in trouble early against the Longhorns (3-1).

By get-away day, the defensive intensity and efficiency the Vols used to put away Stanford on opening night had eroded. Tennessee surrendered a combined 189 points to the Tar Heels and Longhorns.

North Carolina shot 58 percent and Texas wasn't far behind at 52.4 percent.

"We've got to go back home and play hard,'' said point guard C.J. Watson, whose career-high 19 points were one of the few Tennessee highlights Wednesday.

"We gave up a lot of points in transition. They pushed it hard, both teams, and we really didn't back in transition.''

The half-court defense wasn't so hot, either, especially in the early going.

By shredding Tennessee's man-to-man defense with penetration and controlling the glass, the Horns raced to a 36-20 lead with 6 minutes left in the first half.

Only an inspired effort by Watson kept the Vols within 46-35 at intermission.

Watson got most of his points forcing the tempo. In the half-court game, Tennessee could make no headway against the Longhorns' aggressive zone defense.

"We just didn't have any heart,'' said center Major Wingate. "When we got down 10 or 13, a lot of people hung their heads and just wanted to jack shots and stuff.

"We need to come together and play together as a team.''

For a few minutes, the Vols did.

The Longhorns' stampede slowed late in the first half after Tennessee abandoned its man-to-man in favor of a 2-3 zone defense. Texas was 2-of-10 from 3-point range in the first half and missed two more to open the second.

When Chris Lofton drilled a 3-pointer with 17:22 to play, Texas' 16-point lead had shriveled to 48-44.

But a killer wave of Longhorn treys was about to come rolling toward the shore and the Vols never saw it coming.

Point guard Daniel Gibson, one of three McDonald's All-America freshmen on the Texas roster, popped up over the zone and hit consecutive 3-pointers to make it 54-44.

That was just the start. Four more were coming in short order, three from Kenny Taylor. After a Gibson miss, Taylor hit another to make it 7-of-8, and at 75-57, Tennessee was finished.

"We struggled in the man-to-man,'' said UT coach Buzz Peterson. "They're very quick and they got by us so we went zone.

"But if you stay in one thing a long time, good teams, they'll figure it out and hurt you.''

Texas figured out it could hurt the Vols on the boards from the get-go. The rebounding carnage was 44-27 in the Longhorns' favor.

Between its outside marksmen and inside muscle, Texas put six men in double figures, led by 19 points from Gibson.

Coach Rick Barnes, who has averaged 23.5 wins in his six seasons at Texas, left encouraged that more good times are on the way. He was pleased with the resiliency his team showed 24 hours after 82-80 upset loss to Iowa.

"I told the team today would be a character game,'' said Barnes. "How would we respond?

"I told 'em, 'If you don't think it'll be big, it'll be big come March.' ''

Tennessee has plenty of issues to solve in December. Chief among them is getting senior Brandon Crump out of a rut.

Crump had eight points, seven rebounds and five turnovers, hardly the breakout game he wanted against the home-state Longhorns.

"Brandon had a tough tournament,'' Peterson said. "We've got to get him some confidence.''

Scooter McFadgon scored 13 points. Lofton added nine and Wingate eight.

The Vols fly home this afternoon and get ready to play Wofford on Monday night.

"They ran it at us pretty good today,'' said Peterson. "But it's a long season.

"We came out here and played three top-25 teams. Sure, we'd like to have another win but this is something we can build on.''

Mike Strange may be reached at 865-342-6276 or strange2@knews.com.