COLUMBUS, Ohio -- J.R. Reynolds was on his way to ESPN's SportsCenter highlights and Tennessee appeared to be on the way home.

For a half in Sunday's NCAA tournament second-round game, Virginia's senior guard lit up the Vols for 22 points, scoring from long range, from short range and from the free-throw stripe.

"At halftime, he was only trailing us by eight or 10 points, just by himself,'' said UT's JaJuan Smith.

"Yeah,'' added point guard Ramar Smith, "we felt bad coming in at halftime with a guy having 22 points on us. But things happen.''

Two things happened, actually.

One, Reynolds tweaked his right ankle late in the half.

Two, Tennessee decided to take some pride in its team defense.

As a result, the Vols are on their way to San Antonio and the Sweet 16 after a 77-74 victory over the Cavaliers.

Reynolds returned for the second half but he wasn't the same player.

He added only four points on 2-of-6 shooting. He missed all three of his 3-point shots, never got back to the free-throw line and committed two turnovers.

"I stepped on (the foot) of a Tennessee player and kind of rolled the ankle,'' Reynolds said. "I didn't have the same lift or the push-off in my right ankle.''

Reynolds finished with 26 points. A rotation of Vols took a crack at guarding him the second half.

"He's a great player,'' said UT freshman Josh Tabb, "and he's going to be a great player in the pros, too.

"We just had a team effort, and that's what got it done.''

As a team Virginia shot 33.3 percent the second half, down from 41.7 percent first half.

Without Reynolds as a go-to guy, Virginia point guard Sean Singletary tried to fill the void, scoring 15 of his 19 points in the second half.

"But it wasn't enough,'' noted Ramar Smith.

UT did a better job defending Virginia's ball screens in the second half. The Vols also tried to take advantage of Reynolds' injury by making him play defense.

"We drove it at him,'' said UT coach Pearl. "We went around him but I don't know that we converted as often as we'd like.''

Virginia blocked five shots.

Laughter Helps: In any situation, no matter how dire, a little humor comes in handy.

Trailing Virginia 38-35 at halftime, Tennessee should have felt the pressure of an entire season bearing down -- especially the way Reynolds had gone off on them.

"Coach Pearl came in the locker room with a little smile on his face,'' said Tabb. "He said it was time to play Tennessee basketball.''

Pearl lightened the mood, perhaps strategically.

"We actually kind of chuckled,'' he said, "at how badly we were playing and we're only down three.''

Chism's Day: UT freshman center Wayne Chism showed no ill effects of the blow to his throat Friday that kept him out of the second half of the win against Long Beach State.

In the first half Sunday, Chism scored 12 points and hit a pair of 3-point tries.

"I barely remember the other day,'' Chism said. "I really have no idea what happened. I felt fine today.''

Pearl didn't feel so fine when Chism picked up his third and fourth fouls in the opening 28 seconds of the second half.

"Everybody kept me motivated the whole time and I kept everybody motivated at the same time,'' Chism said.

He returned with 5:20 to play and grabbed a couple of clutch rebounds before fouling out at the 1:09 mark.

The Last Shot: Virginia's Sean Singletary thought his 3-point shot at the buzzer was going in to send the game to overtime.

"I thought it was good,'' Singletary said. "I got a head of steam and a good pick from Jason Cain and pulled it up deep and felt as though I got good elevation in my shot and good rotation.

"But it went in and out so I missed it.''

JaJuan Smith was thinking one thing as he watched the shot:

"Overtime,'' Smith said. "He'd done made two in a row.

"Overtime, that's not what we need right now. Luckily it hit the rim and we started celebrating.''

Finally: Virginia had eliminated UT in the only two previous NCAA tournament meetings, back-to-back in 1981 and 1982.