LEXINGTON, Ky. — Tennessee athletics is officially upside down.

First, you had the football team losing six games and not qualifying for a bowl game for the first time in 17 years.

Then, you have a men's basketball program rising from death's door to lead the SEC East.

And now, the Lady Vols have lost back-to-back basketball games.

Normally, two losses for the Lady Vols is called a bad month. But these losses came three days apart — a 22-point defeat against unbeaten Duke and a just-as-shocking 66-63 loss to unranked Kentucky on Thursday night at Rupp Arena.

It's a wonder the Wildcats could even find Rupp Arena, much less beat the nation's No. 1 team in it. They usually play their home games at Memorial Coliseum.

But this game was too big for that. Both the team and the fans were comfortable on a grander stage.

A record crowd of 13,689 was loudly optimistic from the outset. The team's intensity matched the volume.

The setting was strikingly similar to Monday night's game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. So was UT's response.

The Lady Vols didn't go belly-up as they did in Duke's onslaught, but they didn't match their opponent's determination, either.

There's a reason why the Lady Vols hadn't lost back-to-back games in nine years before Thursday night. They have a reputation of hating losing as much as they enjoy winning. And on those rare occasions when they do lose, you expect them to take it out on their next opponent.

Not this time. Not this team.

Granted, this was an unusual circumstance. UT began the week with a shot at matching its 1997-98 team's unbeaten season. Maybe it was suffering from a first-loss hangover, which could explain a first half in which the Wildcats made nine layups en route to a 35-30 lead.

In the second half, Kentucky lost its edge. The Wildcats managed only one free throw in nine possessions. The momentum had clearly shifted; the Lady Vols had taken the lead.

What happened next was more surprising than anything that transpired in the first half.

The program that prides itself on winning big games before hostile crowds handed the momentum and the lead back to the Wildcats, who demonstrated more poise and perseverance down the stretch.

It was a testament to the program that former UT assistant coach Mickie DeMoss has built in three years at Kentucky. Her team handled the pressure better than Summitt's. Go figure.

Kentucky was on foreign ground in its own town. Its players had never had a crowd like this behind it. Its program hadn't beaten UT's since 1986.

So it had little reason for optimism when it fell behind 55-50 with 7:50 to play. You could almost flash forward to the finish when the crowd would applaud its team's great effort in a losing cause, and Summitt would compliment her longtime friend for making it close.

Instead, the Wildcats delivered the inexplicable kind of stretch run that has made so many underdog thoroughbreds famous in the Bluegrass State.

There was nothing mysterious about Jenny Pfeiffer's contributions to Kentucky's comeback in the last three minutes. Pfeiffer, a 93.9-percent free-throw shooter, made three consecutive free throws to tie the game at 60-60 with 2:51 to play. Then, with 15 seconds to play, she made two more to give the Wildcats a one-point lead.

"I was shaking when I went to the line," Pfeiffer said. "I'm usually not that way. I told myself to 'calm down.' "

It's easier to calm yourself at the foul line when you have Pfeiffer's history. She shoots 500 free throws a day in the off-season and has made as many as 94 in a row.

Teammate Sarah Elliott said she was shaking, too, when Pfeiffer went to the line with 15 seconds to play. Seconds later, she was shaking with joy.

Before the game, she admitted to being "a little skeptical of us winning."

"But I knew we were going out there and fight," she added.

UT couldn't match the Wildcats' fight. It has one of the most-talented teams in the country, but it doesn't have the toughness to match.

It needed both talent and toughness this week.