Vols need antidote

Maybe a miracle drug will be invented before LSU comes to Knoxville on Feb. 5.

Whatever's ailing the Tennessee men's basketball team, it spread like an infectious disease to Auburn in a 62-59 loss to the Tigers.

The Vols (10-10, 3-4 SEC) lost their third in a row, and this time there wasn't a Louisville or Kentucky on the other side of the court.

Auburn (10-9, 1-5), undersized and in foul trouble, was still able to end a five-game losing streak.

Major Wingate and Scooter McFadgon were just two of the Vols wondering what happened after this one.

"It was a game I should have dominated and I didn't," Wingate said. "There's no excuse for it.

"The loss is really on me. It's extremely frustrating. The locker room was so quiet and everybody had their heads down."

The Tigers, previously winless in the SEC, were supposed to provide the perfect medicine to revive the slumping Vols.

Auburn rarely had a player taller than 6-foot-6 on the court. Wingate, at 6-10, finished 0-for-2 from the floor, with six points and three rebounds.

"This is a team we easily should have beaten double digits," he said.

McFadgon had the same feeling, but his shooting slump continued with a 5-for-19 effort and 14 points.

"We should have won this game," he said. "We got up 9-0, got relaxed, and with them being so small, we started thinking we'll blow them out."

Auburn came in with a different idea.

"You should have heard us in the locker room," Auburn senior Quinnel Brown said. "As far as Major goes, I don't think he liked the physical play that I was giving him."

C.J. Watson was again steady for the Vols, scoring a game-high 17 points. Still, he finished with zero assists for the first time this season.

"This was a tough day," he said. "I thought we would come out and be aggressive from the start to finish."

Instead, it came in spurts. Midway through the second half, Auburn went on a 13-5 run to take a 51-45 lead.

The run was capped off when UT coach Buzz Peterson was whistled for a technical after an offensive goal-tending call on Wingate.

Peterson admitted after the game he intentionally went after the technical trying to spark his team. It worked on the defensive end, but not on the offensive end.

Auburn proceeded to go scoreless for the next six minutes and six seconds, but the best the Vols could do was tie the game at 51-51 with six points during the Tigers' drought.

"We're battling an uphill battle trying to figure out what we're doing offensively," Peterson said. "You can't have turnovers late and missed boxouts late, and that's what we did.

"Andre Patterson did a good job, but Major Wingate didn't really show up today."

Patterson finished with 10 points and six rebounds after going 0 for 1 in the first half.

Freshman Chris Lofton, averaging 12.4 points a game, was 1-of-5 from the floor and had five points.

The Vols shot 36.7 percent from the floor, were outscored in the paint (24-18) and had zero fast-break points.

Brown's put-back basket off his own miss with 2:45 remaining was the beginning of the end for UT. That snapped the late Auburn dry spell and Nathan Watson made it 55-51 a minute later by stealing a Wingate pass and driving the floor for a layup.

Ian Young's 3-pointer after a Watson block of Wingate made it a seven-point game with 47 seconds remaining.

Young and Watson each hit two free throws and UT couldn't make up the difference despite two 3-pointers in the final 15 seconds by Lofton and McFadgon.

Watson led Auburn with 15 points. Brown and Young added 11 apiece.

"We just need to put this one behind us," C.J. Watson said. "This could definitely affect our confidence, but it's our job as leaders on this team that this doesn't happen."