NASHVILLE – Tennessee fell behind early, but rallied for a 59-49 victory over LSU in the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament opening-round game here Thursday afternoon.

The Vols will play Ole Miss in a quarterfinal on Friday at 3:15 p.m. eastern time.

POSTGAME QUOTES

THE MODERATOR: We'll ask Coach to make opening comments, and then we'll have questions just for the student-athletes. Coach, would you begin.

COACH PEARL: The SEC Tournament is supposed to be a celebration of our basketball. Basketball takes place all season long. You know, tonight, the way we played and how effective LSU was, there wasn't a great celebration.

However, if you'd seen us through the season, you've seen us grind some games out like that. You know, we've been doing it with defense and rebounding. We held them down to 36%, and we out rebounded them not by as big a margin as I would have liked. So it wasn't a thing of beauty, but it is called survive and advance.

"I'd certainly single out Brian Williams and his 14 rebounds was really, really solid for us inside there, and obviously Bobby has a point guard, you put the ball in his hands late, and you let him get fouled and make those plays. So we closed it out.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for either of the two student-athletes.

Q. Brian, even when your team was struggling early, you seemed really inspired today from the get-go, is there any particular reason you came out playing that way?

BRIAN WILLIAMS: It's one and done. So I think I should be -- the team should be on the same page and ready to play.

If you lose, we're going back to Knoxville, and that's something nobody wants to do.

Q. Bobby, can you just talk about the slow start and really not a lot of assists today. What was the reason for that?

BOBBY MAZE: Well, I think we got some great looks. LSU played zone. Just wasn't able to knock down shots.
I think a couple guys -- I think we struggled as a team from three. I think we did a good job of playing defense, and that's why we won the game.

So I look at Brian having all those rebounds, 14 rebounds. You know, when we get that type of production out of him, I think it gives us a great chance to win the game.

Q. Bobby, also for you, can you just talk about the start of the second half. You guys shoot 50% after shooting 26% in the first, and you kind of got things rolling with that first lead of the game and the three-point. What was the difference in the mindset after halftime?

BOBBY MAZE: The difference was the type of shots we took. We drove the ball inside and then kicked it out. Got some plays inside to Wayne and attacked the basket. And was able to get to the free-throw line. That was the difference between the first half and second half.

In the first half, we just settled. As a shooter, you see how open you was, you want to take this shot. Shot clock was at 23, 24. We should have ran it down a little bit more and gotten an even better look. I think we just took the first open shot instead of waiting.

With the win, No. 15 (AP)/13 (ESPN/USA Today) Tennessee moves to 24-7 overall. The Volunteers advance to Round 2 of the tourney, and will face Ole Miss (#2 seed, West) on Friday at 2:15 pm, CT.
With the loss, LSU moves to 11-20 overall.

Tennessee Notes:
With the win, Tennessee moves to 58-45 all-time in SEC tournament play. The Volunteers and Alabama are tied for second behind Kentucky’s 111-win total in SEC action. Tennessee also moves to 7-3 vs. LSU all-time in SEC tournament play.

Tennessee, attempting to reach their second consecutive SEC Tournament final, moves to 2-2 all-time in SEC tourney games played in Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. They are now 23-13 in neutral site games during the Bruce Pearl Era.

The Volunteers also are 2-0 this year against LSU, having defeated the Tigers 59-54 on Feb. 4 in Baton Rouge.

• The Volunteers held LSU to just 49 points, the lowest by any of their SEC opponents this year.
• Wayne Chism had 17 points and 10 rebounds, his sixth double-double this season. In those games, the Vols are 6-0.
• Brian Williams set a season high with 14 rebounds. He topped his previous high of 13 rebounds grabbed in the season finale at Mississippi State.
• Tennessee outrebounded the Tigers 43-36.
• The Volunteers started cold from the field, going just 2-of-8 through the 11:46 mark.
• Chism scored Tennessee’s first seven points. Another Volunteer didn’t score until J.P. Prince’s layup at the 8:21 mark.
• Trailing by seven (17-10) with 5:00 left before halftime, Tennessee edged to within two at 17-15 on a Chism tip-in and 3-point play by post Williams.
• Tennessee tied the game 21-21 in the final second of action on Chism’s converted foul shot. The game was tied previously 4-4.
• Besides Chism, the Volunteers struggled shooting in the first half. Without Chism, who finished with 10 first-half points, the team went 4-of-23 from the field, and 0-of-7 from three-point range.
• The Volunteers’ 21-point total in the first half is the team’s lowest since scoring just 20 points before intermission in a Dec. 19 loss to Southern California.
• Bobby Maze’s 3-pointer at 19:06 of the second half gave Tennessee their first lead since a 3-2 in the opening minute.
• Tied at 30-30 with 15:48 left, Tennessee went on an 8-0 run to open a 38-30 margin with 9:20 left. The Vols held LSU scoreless for a 6:28 stretch of the second half.
• Three-pointers by Cameron Tatum and Chism, followed by a Prince dunk at the 6:17 mark, gave Tennessee its largest lead, 46-34.

Official Basketball Box Score -- Game Totals -- Final Statistics
LSU vs Tennessee
3/11/10 2:35 p.m. at Nashville, Tenn. (Bridgestone Arena)
LSU 49 • 11-20, 2-14
Total 3-Ptr Rebounds
## Player FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA Off Def Tot PF TP A TO Blk Stl Min
01 MITCHELL, Tasmin f 4-12 2-4 0-2 0 8 8 4 10 3 6 0 2 37
03 GREEN, Garrett f 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 1 0 4
24 WARREN, Storm f 9-13 0-0 0-1 3 3 6 4 18 1 1 1 1 27
04 BASS, Chris g 0-3 0-1 0-0 1 3 4 2 0 5 1 0 0 21
11 SPENCER, Bo g 1-10 1-8 2-2 0 3 3 4 5 1 3 0 2 40
10 POPULIST, Daron 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 9
12 DOTSON, Aaron 0-3 0-1 2-3 1 0 1 2 2 0 0 0 1 9
13 LUDWIG, Eddie 3-5 0-1 2-4 4 1 5 3 8 0 2 1 1 31
15 HARRIS, Dennis 2-7 0-1 0-0 1 3 4 2 4 0 0 1 0 18
20 KINSLEY, Zach 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4
Team 3 0 3 1
Totals 20-56 3-16 6-12 13 21 34 23 49 11 15 4 7 200
FG % 1st Half: 10-28 35.7%
3FG % 1st Half: 0-7 0.0%
FT % 1st Half: 1-2 50.0%
2nd half: 10-28 35.7%
2nd half: 3-9 33.3%
2nd half: 5-10 50.0%
Game: 20-56 35.7%
Game: 3-16 18.8%
Game: 6-12 50.0%
Deadball
Rebounds
2
Tennessee 59 • 24-7, 11-5
Total 3-Ptr Rebounds
## Player FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA Off Def Tot PF TP A TO Blk Stl Min
33 Williams, Brian f 3-6 0-0 1-1 6 8 14 3 7 0 2 1 0 28
04 Chism, Wayne c 6-9 2-5 3-5 4 7 11 2 17 1 2 0 0 36
03 Maze, Bobby g 2-9 1-6 9-10 0 0 0 0 14 1 2 1 0 23
30 Prince, J.P. g 5-8 0-1 1-1 1 1 2 3 11 0 5 1 1 29
32 Hopson, Scotty g 0-8 0-4 2-4 1 2 3 0 2 4 3 0 0 25
13 McBee, Skylar 0-2 0-2 0-0 0 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 6
20 Hall, Kenny 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 4
21 Goins, Melvin 1-2 0-0 1-3 0 1 1 0 3 0 1 0 1 18
22 Pearl, Steven 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 12
23 Tatum, Cameron 2-6 1-5 0-0 1 1 2 4 5 0 1 0 0 19
Team 1 4 5
Totals 19-51 4-23 17-24 15 26 41 15 59 6 17 3 3 200
FG % 1st Half: 7-27 25.9%
3FG % 1st Half: 1-9 11.1%
FT % 1st Half: 6-9 66.7%
2nd half: 12-24 50.0%
2nd half: 3-14 21.4%
2nd half: 11-15 73.3%
Game: 19-51 37.3%
Game: 4-23 17.4%
Game: 17-24 70.8%
Deadball
Rebounds
3,1
Officials: Tom Eades, Rick Crawford, J.B. Caldwell
Technical fouls: LSU-None. Tennessee-None.
Attendance: 15152
2010 SEC Tournament (First Round)
Tennessee was the East No. 3 seed; LSU was the West No. 6 seed.
Score by periods 1st 2nd Total
LSU 21 28 49
Tennessee 21 38 59
In Off 2nd Fast
Points Paint T/O Chance Break Bench
LSU 22 11 11 0 14
UT 28 10 14 2 8
Last FG - LSU 2nd-01:04, UT 2nd-01:33.
Largest lead - LSU by 7 1st-04:55, UT by 12 2nd-06:17.
Score tied - 5 times.
Lead changed - 3 times.

(E-mail Stan Crawley at wscrawley@earthlink.net)