At halftime Friday night, a glance at Chris Lofton's line in the box score put a frown on Tennessee men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl's brow. But not for the reason you'd think.

It wasn't the 0-for-4 in Tennessee's best shooter's shooting column. It wasn't the two free throws being Lofton's only scoring contribution.

"What I saw was 18 minutes,'' Pearl said. "The only thing I said to Chris was, 'You played too many minutes.' "

In Pearl's rip-and-run system, 18 minutes out of 20 is a lot.

At halftime, Eastern Kentucky coach Jeff Neubauer looked at Lofton's line in the box score and knew the Colonels had gotten off easy.

Maybe Neubauer crossed his fingers and asked the basketball gods to misdirect Lofton's touch for another half.

"We had watched the tape of the Louisiana-Lafayette game,'' said Neubauer. "He'd hit shots with three guys draped all over him.

"He's just a tremendous shooter.''

Lofton doesn't look at the box score at halftime. But he is tuned in. He knew he'd missed two wide-open 3-point looks.

"It's back there,'' he said, meaning in his head. "I know what's going on.

"But if we're winning at halftime and everybody else is playing good, I'm satisfied.''

Everybody else was playing good. But then in the first four minutes of the second half, Eastern Kentucky whittled what had been a 17-point UT lead to 46-35.

Shades of Tuesday night's second half when a 21-point lead completely disappeared against Louisiana-Lafayette.

Maybe that was also back there in Lofton's head.

At any rate, he exploded on a scoring binge.

And that was it for the Colonels as Tennessee pulled away for a 92-58 victory.

In a span of 4 minutes and 50 seconds, Lofton scored 15 of UT's 21 points.

He started with a drive, converting while getting fouled, and adding the free throw.

A little over a minute later, he ran off a screen, caught a pass in front of the Tennessee bench and drilled a long 3-pointer.

Then he made a steal but rimmed out a 3-pointer.

After a Major Wingate dunk, Lofton pump-faked a defender and hit another trey.

Andre Patterson converted a running hook, then Lofton hit a 3-pointer in the corner.

A moment later, he hit another 3-pointer. With 11:03 to play, the Vols were up 67-41, and any threat was defused.

And just like that, Lofton shut it down. Didn't score again.

Of his 17 points, 15 came in that one furious burst. He played only 12 minutes in the second half.

Pearl didn't take any credit for the second-half outburst.

"He's forgotten more than I know about him getting himself going,'' Pearl said.

"I told him, 'Can't you make easy shots? Does every shot have to be tough?'

"We get open looks for him and he can't make them, yet he makes all those tough fall-aways.''

On the year, Lofton is sizzling at an even 50 percent from 3-point range. Last year, as a rookie, he became the second freshman ever to lead the SEC in 3-point shooting (46.5 percent).

As EKU's Neubauer saw on the videotape, last Tuesday night Lofton made a phenomenal shot at the end of the first half against Louisiana-Lafayette.

His first attempt was stripped on the way up, but he chased down the ball and fired a leaning one-hander from 30 feet over a couple of defenders. Naturally, it swished.

"Sometimes,'' said Lofton, "I like it when people are in my face. It looks better.''

Pearl, the new coach, will get used to seeing Lofton make shots like the one against Louisiana-Lafayette.

And he'll get used to seeing Lofton go off on a binge like the one against Eastern Kentucky.

"That's just normal,'' said Wingate. "I'm used to it.

"I don't think he could surprise me any more than he already has.''

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