Strange: Vols' effort made the difference

He didn’t say it enough.

He could have said it six more times.

Tennessee 69, Alabama 66 in overtime.

The judges scored it a 4.5 for artistic merit but a perfect 10 for effort.

Sometimes even in ugliness there is a kind of grudging beauty.

On a night when both teams desperately needed a victory to bolster their NCAA tournament hopes, the Vols and the Crimson Tide had to suffer their own respective versions of basketball hell at Thompson-Boling Arena.

Tennessee couldn’t throw the ball in the ocean. Alabama couldn’t keep from throwing the ball to Tennessee.

The Vols shot 33.3 percent from the field. In other words, they missed two thirds of their 81 shots.

From 3-point range, they were worse, a lot worse — 7-of-36, or 19.4 percent.

Alabama, meanwhile, turned the ball over 26 times, easily the most of any game this year.

Shooting so poorly, there were a dozen ways Tennessee could have lost this game against an opponent of Alabama’s quality.

Several times, it appeared the Vols would do just that. And who’s to dispute that a loss Wednesday night might have been the death knell to their NCAA hopes.

"I thought about that,’’ junior Chris Lofton said, "when they’d go up four or five.

" ‘The NCAA tournament is on the line right here.’ We had to battle back.’’

To their credit, they always did.

"This game was won on effort,’’ said Pearl, the first UT coach to beat Alabama since Jerry Green did back in 2001.

"The effort our kids gave was nothing short of outstanding.’’

Pearl also said UT’s "ball pressure and effort were spectacular."

He said it was a great effort "up and down’’ the roster.

He loved the "effort on the boards" — 19 offensive rebounds.

He appreciated the way the crowd responded to Ryan Childress, who was "giving a terrific effort.’’

There was another "outstanding effort’’ in there somewhere.

On a run-of-the-mill shooting night, Tennessee wins this game by 15 points.

But on a run-of-the-mill effort night, it loses by 15 points.

Maybe the Vols were able to go the extra-effort mile because they left plenty of gas in the tank at South Carolina four days earlier.

At any rate, Tennessee’s defensive pressure was outstanding on the perimeter. The press paid big dividends.

The Vols fought Alabama’s vaunted big men to a standstill. Richard Hendrix and Jermareo Davidson were a combined 6-of-18 from the field.

An energized crowd that had few offensive highlights to applaud responded to the energy on the court.

"This was required,’’ said Pearl. "Our backs are against the wall to make the tournament.’’

Their backs were definitely touching the wall when Alabama went up 58-53 with three minutes left in regulation.

The Vols dug in, fought back and got the thing to overtime — only to go right back up against the wall again when Bama led 64-60 with 3:19 left in the extra session.

"When you’re fighting for the NCAA tournament,’’ said Lofton, "you put it all on the floor.’’

The Vols put it all on the floor and put a 9-2 finishing run on the scoreboard.

On a night when there were plenty of ways to lose, there was only one way to win.

Effort.

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