The win made the Crimson Tide (16-9, 7-5 Southeastern Conference) 5-0 vs. ranked teams this season and kept them in contention for one of the top four spots in the conference.

The loss dropped the Vols (18-6, 8-4 SEC) two games behind league-leader Auburn in the conference race.

Forward Donta Hall and guard Collin Sexton led the Tide with 17 and 16 points, respectively, and guard John Petty chipped in with 14.

The hot-shooting Tide wasted little time in building on a 10-point halftime cushion, taking less than four minutes to stretch that to 18 points at 52-34 and then to over 20 points on guard Herbert Jones' 3-pointer that made it 63-42 at the 11:15 mark.

The Tide shot 57.1 percent for the game to Tennessee's 27.6 percent and had the Vols down by as many as 28 points, 76-48, with under three minutes left. They kept that margin to the end.

Forward Grant Williams led Tennessee with 16 points as the only Vol in double figures.

Cold shooting put Tennessee in an early hole. The Vols started off making only two of their first 11 shots and fell back 17-6 just over six minutes into the game.

Over the next seven minutes they managed to cut that down to 20-18, but the Tide responded with four quick points on their way to a 37-27 cushion.

Hall and Sexton combined to go 9 of 13 from the field in scoring 10 points each as the Tide finished the half shooting 16-of-29 (55.2 percent) from the field to Tennessee's 9-of-29 (31.0 percent). Petty was 3-for-9 in adding nine points for the Tide. No Vol was in double figures in the first period.

The 27 points were a season-low first half for the Vols.

--Field Level Media