So much for a storybook home-court ending.

C.J. Watson's 3-point shot at the buzzer clanged off the side of the rim, ending No. 11 Tennessee's hopes of sweeping Kentucky for the first time in seven years.

The Wildcats scored an 80-78 victory over the SEC East Division champion Vols before a sellout crowd of 24,108 Wednesday night at Thompson-Boling Arena.

Kentucky's Randolph Morris and Rajon Rondo did most of the damage for the Big Blue.

Morris scored 14 of his 22 points in the first half and Rondo scored 12 of his 16 in the second half for the Wildcats (19-10, 9-6 SEC). Morris and Rondo were a combined 16-of-18 from the floor.

Kentucky was particularly proficient in the second half, hitting 15 of 19 (78.9 percent) shots from the floor.

"When you shoot like we did the latter part of the second half, you're going to win a lot of games,'' said Wildcats coach Tubby Smith, whose team has won four of its last five. "This shows we can compete with anyone, and we have the ability to go on the road and win a game like this against the East Division champions. With their power rating, it's a feather in our cap.''

Tennessee (20-6, 11-4) has lost three of its last four games. The Vols were led by Watson, Chris Lofton and JaJuan Smith, who scored 15 points each.

Smith, however, had a particularly rough final minute, missing the front end of a 1-and-1 free-throw opportunity with the Vols trailing 80-78 and 52.6 seconds remaining.

UT had another chance to tie after Dane Bradshaw came up with the rebound of a Joe Crawford miss.

But with 10 seconds left, Smith slipped while attempting to penetrate Kentucky's defense with the ball, and after bodies hit the floor in a scramble, Kentucky's Brandon Stockton came up with the ball and passed to Crawford.

"I wouldn't have expected him (Smith) to try to over-dribble it,'' Pearl said. "I thought he tried to make a couple of moves. I was hoping we'd get the ball back in C.J.'s hands.

"I could have called a timeout, but I didn't anticipate him (Smith) turning the ball over.''

Lofton fouled Crawford before the Wildcats could get on the break, and Crawford obliged UT's hopes, missing the front end of a 1-and-1 free-throw situation with 8.1 seconds left.

Bradshaw rebounded and got the outlet pass off to Watson, but Watson's leaner was no good.

"It was a good look; I thought it was going in,'' said Watson, who finished 5-of-15 from the floor with five assists and three turnovers. "I was sad, mad and frustrated with our defense and some of the plays I could have made better.''

Indeed, Rondo won the battle of point guards, getting eight assists to go along with his 16 points.

The Vols led by as many as 14 points in the first half before the Wildcats closed the gap to 45-38 at intermission.

After the break, Kentucky came out white-hot, nailing its first eight shots of the second half.

A Stockton trey with 15:18 left put Kentucky up, 52-50, and its first lead since the 15:49 mark of the first half when two Morris free throws made it 7-6.

Kentucky went up by as many as six when Rondo scored on a drive to make it 61-55 with 11:54 showing.

Rondo scored 10 consecutive points on drives to the basket at one stretch in the second half, but the Vols countered by draining five consecutive 3-pointers, the final one in the streak by Watson tied the game 69-69 with 8:15 left.

But down the stretch, Rondo and Morris were just too much for Tennessee to handle.

"We had no answer for Rondo off the dribble and Morris finished everything around the basket,'' Pearl lamented. "We still had a chance, but the combination of not making a free throw here or there, and a turnover late, and we don't get this one.

"We've got to focus on coming down the stretch and playing better basketball. There's no margin for error with this team.''

The Vols finish the regular season at Vanderbilt Saturday (TV: WVLT, 2 p.m.) before moving on to the SEC tournament, where they'll face the winner of a game between the East's No. 5 seed and the West's No. 4 at 1 p.m. March 10.

Lofton Slowed: Smith credited Patrick Sparks with limiting Lofton to 15 points.

"He (Sparks) made (Lofton) work to get his shots,'' Smith said. "I just felt like he was ready to do it. He's shown he's savvy enough and smart enough that he could stay with him. Chris is a very smart, intelligent player and that's how he gets open.''

Lofton still managed to hit three 3-pointers and break Allan Houston's single-season UT mark (99) in that category. Lofton, who has 101 3-pointers, also went 2-for-2 from the free-throw line, extended his consecutive free-throw streak to 38, one shy of the school record.