Tennessee junior Chris Lofton blew up, and the Vols' collectively grew up against talent-laden Memphis Wednesday night.

Lofton scored a career-high 34 points on 12-of-18 shooting to lead UT to a 76-58 victory over the No. 16-ranked Tigers (6-2) at Thompson-Boling Arena in front of 19,714.

"This win could benefit us more than any other,'' said UT senior Dane Bradshaw, who attended White Station High School in Memphis. "This gets us more attention nationally and maybe gets us back in the rankings.''

The Vols (7-2) began the season ranked 25th and climbed to 22nd before a pair of losses to Butler and North Carolina in the NIT Season Tip-Off in New York City.

UT coach Bruce Pearl took exception with the Memphis-heavy TV promotion of the ESPN2 clash between the Vols and Tigers, and so did his players.

"Dick Vitale was talking about freshmen, but all the freshmen he talked about were on Memphis' team,'' said UT freshman center Duke Crews, who posted career-highs with 10 rebounds and three blocked shots along with scoring nine points. "Everyone wants Dick Vitale to talk about them.''

Certainly, scoreboard watchers were abuzz when the Vols held a 43-22 lead at intermission, finishing the first half on a 25-5 run.

Lofton was hot from the early goings, hitting nine of his first 11 shots for 21 first-half points.

UT struggled out of the gate in the second half, making one of its first 12 shots. That enabled Memphis to draw to within 12 points, 45-33, when Chris Douglas-Roberts scored three of his team-high 19 points on a 3-pointer at the 13:45 mark.

"We get it down to 12, and I said, 'OK, let's get it to eight or seven and see how they play then,' '' Memphis coach John Calipari said. "What happens? Turnover, offensive rebound, bad shot, and I'm like, 'what are we doing?'

"You know what? We deserve to get beat by 20 because of the way we played.''

Lofton had much to do with inflating the margin after Memphis cut the lead to 12, too. Lofton put a shake move on Doneal Mack and drilled a 3-pointer. Then it was Lofton with the aforementioned offensive rebound, which he converted into two free throws while also drawing Joey Dorsey's fourth foul.

Lofton capped that spurt with a fall-away 3-pointer that made it 55-38 at the 11:46 mark.

Memphis drew no closer than 13 for the remainder of the game.

Bradshaw helped fend off the Tigers, scoring nine of his 11 points in the second half and pulling down eight of his nine rebounds over the final 20 minutes.

JaJuan Smith scored just seven points in 17 minutes, but his twirling 360-degree dunk brought down the house and stifled another Tigers' comeback bid.

"That was crazy,'' Crews said. "When he started twirling, I about lost my mind.''

Crews saw to it that UT didn't lose the lead after Memphis closed to 18-17 in the first half, as his put-back at the 8:35 mark sparked a 9-0 run.

Crews followed with a dunk, and then it was Lofton with an NBA range 3-pointer and a slicing drive through traffic for another two points.

Suddenly, UT had a 27-17 lead with 6:10 left in the half.

With Thompson-Boling rocking, Calipari called a timeout with hopes of calming his troops.

Instead, the action grew more intense.

Crews took exception to an Andre Allen's foul on a dunk attempt and was whistled for a technical after shooting a comment Allen's way.

Jeremy Hunt split a pair of technical free throws, breaking the Vols' scoring run.

Crews, however, hit both of his free throws to make it 29-18, with 5:09 left in the half.

Crews, still fired up, forced a turnover and Ramar Smith hit a shot in the lane to increase the lead to 31-18.

When Robert Dozier scored on a layup at the 4:25 mark to cut UT's lead to 31-20, it was Memphis' first field goal since a Dozier dunk at 8:55.

The Vols proceeded to rip off another 12-0 run, Ramar Smith capping it with a free throw to give UT its biggest lead of the half at 43-20.

Lofton scored nine points during the run before the Tigers scored the final basket of the half.

Memphis made just 9-of-40 shots in the first half and 22-of-77 (28.6-percent) in the game.

"We knew what we had to do to beat them, I just didn't know if physically we could keep them out of the lane,'' Pearl said. "Tonight doesn't happen without the cast of characters staying together and getting better.''

JaJuan Injury: JaJuan Smith left the game with 4:01 remaining after taking a hard fall on a dunk attempt.

Smith injured his left wrist and will have X-rays taken today.

Starting Lineup: Pearl said he started Wayne Chism over Crews after Crews came to him before the game and made the request because Chism was facing former Bolivar teammate Willie Kemp.

"Duke is a tough guy,'' Pearl said. "For him to step up as a freshman like that, what courage. And then for him to do what he did before the game, what character.''

Dorsey Trouble: Memphis center Joey Dorsey was as good as advertised, but UT saw to it Dorsey's play was limited. Dorsey had 13 rebounds but only played 15 minutes.