Hours before Tennessee faced Florida Saturday, its most valuable player in Zakai Zeigler was ruled out. Minutes before opening tip, the Vols found out that they would be without Igor Milicic Jr.

If Tennessee was going to halt a two-game losing skid against the No. 5 Gators, it was going to have to do it with seven scholarship players.

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Challenge accepted.

The short-handed Vols, down two starts in Zeigler (knee) and Milicic (illness) used a new lineup--headlined by typical sixth-man-turned-starting point guard Jordan Gainey and Darlinstone Dubar--and suffocating defense to topple Florida, 64-44 at Food City Center.

All of Tennessee's shooting issues weren't fixed in an afternoon, but the Vols (18-4, 5-4 SEC) did more than bounce-back from consecutive losses to No. 1 Auburn and No. 12 Kentucky. They found a way.

They did it with timely shooting, knocking down shots from the perimeter to maintain the lead they built off of a late first half push well into the second half. They returned the favor to the Gators (18-3, 5-3), who dominated them in the paint in Gainesville less than a month ago, out-rebounding Florida, 40-37 and finishing with a 34-14 scoring edge in the paint in the second act between the two teams.

Defensively, Tennessee never allowed the Gators any kind of offensive rhythm, holding them to a season-low in scoring and limiting them to just 25% field goal shooting.

Meanwhile, the Vols closed out with one of their best offensive outings in weeks. Chaz Lanier scored a game-high 19, including five 3-pointers. Gainey finished with 16 and Felix Okpara totaled 10 along with eight rebounds.

The early-going looked like the kind of slugfest between the two teams the last time they played in Gainesville.

It took more than two minutes for a shot to fall through and both of them were on free throws from Walter Clayton Jr. to give Florida a 2-0 lead. Field goals were hard to come by for either team.

Darlinstone Dubar, into the starting lineup for the first time, provided Tennessee with its first basket. He added another a minute later and the Vols' defense followed it up by forcing a shot-clock violation that ended with Cade Phillips swatting an Alex Condon shot into the tunnel beyond the baseline.

Jahmai Mashack, taking some of the ball-handling duties with Zakai Zeigler out, scored to draw even at 6-6 before Clayton answered with a 3-pointer to put Florida back in front.

The Gators managed to hold that lead past midway point of the first half, but went four minutes without a field goal thanks to Tennessee's suffocating defense that gave up nothing inside.

It bought enough time for Chaz Lanier to uncork a three give the Vols' their first lead at 14-13 with just over seven minutes to go in the half. Clayton ended a scoreless stretch for Florida that went more than five minutes with a floater that put the Gators back ahead.

But Tennessee's defense translated to points again. Dubar and Phillips blocked two shots on one Florida possession, the second block ending up in the hands of Mashack who dished the ball to Lanier for another go-ahead 3-pointer to lead 21-19 with 1:07 before the intermission.

Florida responded again with game-tying free throws, then Jordan Gainey drove into an open lane after breaking the Gators' press, pulled up and lobbed a pass to Phillips for the dunk and another Tennessee lead, this one going into the half up 24-21.

The Vols held Florida scoreless over the last 2:55 of the half, and that carried over into the second half. Tennessee jumped out to a 6-0 run after Gainey hit a jumper to stretch the Vols' lead to 30-21 and forcing the Gators into a timeout less than two minutes in.

Florida started to get some penetration out of the timeout, scoring on back-to-back possessions to trim their deficit, but a lob pass to Felix Okpara that missed just off his finger tips but still managed to fall through and a Mashack drive and layup pushed Tennessee ahead by 10 with inside of 16 minutes remaining.

Big shots from Gainey, who rattled in a corner three to beat the shot-clock and another from Lanier had the Vols up, 46-33 with 10:07 left and there was nothing Florida could do to answer.

The Gators were unable to keep pace with shot of their own, shooting just 21.4% and 0-for-6 from three-point range to that point in the second half and still little answers for Tennessee's defense.

The sequence that all but put Florida away came with less than eight minutes left, when Mashack stepped in front of a Gators' pass, kept the ball in play by passing it to Phillips at mid-court who drove virtually alone to the end of the floor and threw down an emphatic dunk.

A Lanier three moments later opened up a 20-point lead that Florida didn't come close to threatening over the last six minutes.

For the first time in more than a week, Tennessee has some momentum.

The Vols will begin the back-half of their SEC slate with their presumably fifth-straight ranked match up against No. 20 Missouri (16-4, 5-2) at home Tuesday (7 p.m. ET, SEC Network).

The Tigers, who led No. 14 Mississippi State by 14 as Tennessee put the finishing touches on its win over Florida, five of their last six games.

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