One way to look at it, Tennessee was like a confident race horse, judiciously measuring its strides down the stretch run to nip the front-runner at the wire.

Another way to look at it, the Vols struggled like heck to dodge an embarrassing and perhaps crippling bullet.

At any rate, a 73-67 decision over Wofford went in the "W'' column Monday night before a sparse crowd at Thompson-Boling Arena. Come March, that's all that will matter.

Tennessee (2-2) scored the final 12 points of the game to avoid an unthinkable upset against the Terriers (2-2) of the Southern Conference, who brought the fight all night long.

"It's an ugly 'W' but it still counts as a 'W' and it's better than a loss,'' said UT's Andre Patterson.

Things were indeed looking ugly for Tennessee when Wofford's bull moose Howard Wilkerson scored to give the Terriers a 67-61 lead with 2:57 to play.

"I'm not going to lie to you, I was a little worried,'' said freshman Chris Lofton.

Worried, but not afraid. It was Lofton who triggered UT's rally with a 3-pointer with 2:35 to play. He finished with 19 points on 5-of-7 3-point shooting, leading the Vols in scoring for the second time in the past three games.

"That young man won the game for us,'' said coach Buzz Peterson. "He's cool in tough situations.''

Perhaps the Vols were in a tough situation due to lingering fatigue from the Maui Invitational. Three games against quality opponents, followed by a long, long trip home to a different climate may have taken a toll.

"We could not have drawn a better time to play Tennessee - after their trip to Maui,'' noted Wofford coach Mike Young.

"Yesterday,'' confirmed Peterson, "was not a good practice and the day before was not a good practice.

"I talked to them about two things, energy and confidence. We didn't play with a lot of confidence.''

Yet, the Vols played to a 31-18 lead with 5 minutes left in the first half. But just when some killer instinct would have gone a long way, the Vols abruptly flat-lined.

The Terriers closed out the half with a 19-2 run to lead 37-33.

Intermission didn't alter the momentum. Wofford led 48-38 with 16:55 to play.

The Vols caught up at 56-56. However, when Wilkerson, who finished with 23 points and 13 rebounds, muscled in his basket to make it 67-61, the Terriers could smell the upset.

They wouldn't score again.

Following Lofton's trey, C.J. Watson got his first basket of the second half on a drive. Fouled, he added the free throw to tie the score with 1:41 left.

The Vols finally found a place they could stop the 6-foot-6, 250-pound Wilkerson - the free-throw stripe. He went to the line with 1:29 to play but missed both shots.

At the other end, Tennessee worked the ball inside to Patterson, who made a strong move into the lane and scored.

The Vols led 69-67 with 59 seconds to play.

Wofford's Bryon Fields went on the drive to tie, but missed. Brandon Crump rebounded and Wofford had to foul quickly.

Scooter McFadgon hit both tries with 13.8 seconds on the clock and it was 71-67. The sequence repeated itself - Wofford miss, UT rebound, McFadgon free throws - and that was it.

McFadgon added 16 points, Crump 12, Watson 11 and Patterson 10. Patterson's 12 rebounds gave him his first double-double at UT.

"I'm glad we've got (almost) a week to prepare for our next game,'' Peterson said. "Our guys are a little tired. That's no excuse, but we need to get our legs back.''

Notebook: Dane Bradshaw was in street clothes to rest a toe injury. He will return for Sunday's visit from Chattanooga. The bench provided only five points, a trey from Jordan Howell and two Jemere Hendrix free throws. Lofton said the ankle he sprained in Maui is still hurting and he had hoped to have an easy night. He ended up playing 36 minutes. The Vols made only four turnovers the second half after 12 the first.

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