Tennessee 66, Western Carolina 52: Jordan McRae scored 14 points off the bench as the host Volunteers overcame a dismal first half to defeat the Catamounts.

Josh Richardson and Jarnell Stokes each added 12 points while Kenny Hall added a career-high 13 rebounds for Tennessee (7-3), which won its season-high third straight game despite shooting just 14.3 percent (3-of-21) in the opening 20 minutes.

Western Carolina (4-8) – which was competitive in losses at No. 10 Illinois and No. 21 Georgetown – did much more than that in this contest, forcing Tennessee into field-goal droughts of 10:07 and 7:05 in the first half to take a 14-4 lead following a jumper from Trey Sumler at the 9:38 mark of the first half.

However, the Volunteers made 14 of 17 free throws over the remainder of the half to grab a 22-18 advantage at intermission. Western Carolina managed to retake the lead at 38-37 with 11:57 left, but Richardson and Hall combined for the first six points of a 23-4 run as the Volunteers shot 53.8 percent in the second half and began to pull away.

Sumler scored a game-high 23 points for the Catamounts.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Tennessee notched its 300th win at Thompson-Boling Arena. … The Catamounts fell to 2-36 all-time against Southeastern Conference competition. … Western Carolina committed a season-high 30 fouls and the Volunteers made them pay by going 30-of-42 from the free-throw line.