Sam Godwin turned around and saw an unguarded rim.

It was one of the few times Saturday at Lloyd Noble Center that a Tennessee player wasn't standing in front of it, but the Oklahoma forward couldn't take advantage.

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The ball rimmed out and Igor Milicic Jr. snagged it away and an opportunity for the Sooners to extend their lead to 5 in the early-going of the first half was missed. The No. 4 Vols rattled off an 11-2 run in response and there wasn't a moment its lead was seriously threatened in a 70-52 dismantling of Oklahoma that could have been more had it not been for 19 Tennessee turnovers.

It was the Vols' (20-4, 7-4 SEC) third-straight triumph, and though a prolific shooting performance in the first half was the headliner, Tennessee's nation-leading defense looked the part again.

“That’s what we’ve tried to be all year," Vols' head coach Rick Barnes said. "We’ve always felt that’s what our program was built on. I thought we had great rim protection today. Not only with the blocked shots, we had a couple of great verticality plays at the rim that turned out well for us."

It did turn out well. Fantastic, even.

Tennessee blocked right shots with 6-foot-11 forward Felix Okpara totaled four of them. Cade Phillips had two and Jahmai Mashack and Milicic had one each.

The Vols accounted for 30 defensive rebounds and held Oklahoma (16-7, 3-7) to season lows in points and shooting percentage.

MORE FROM VOLREPORT: Everything Rick Barnes said after No. 4 Tennessee beat Oklahoma

One week ago, Tennessee did the same to then-No. 5 Florida, holding the Gators, who entered the game as one of the best offenses in college basketball, to just 44 points. A week before that, the Vols held top-ranked Auburn to a season-low 54 points.

Tennessee has long led the rest of the country in adjusted defensive efficiency, holding opponents to 85.3 points per 100 offensive possessions after Saturday.

And making shots helps. It seems hard to fathom after the last couple of weeks, but there was a stretch this season where the Vols struggled to do that. They didn't against Missouri earlier in the week and they certainly didn't at Oklahoma.

Tennessee shot 69.2% from the field in the first half vs. the Sooners, including seven-made 3-pointers. Chaz Lanier scored 21 points--the ninth time this season he has reached the 20-point threshold--and Zakai Zeigler finished with 17.

As the Vols continue the back-half of their schedule, they've put together a recipe for a deep run in March.

"When you’re making shots, it looks good even if you’re not playing well," Barnes said. "And the fact that I thought we were locked in defensively and started making those shots again, the first half was pretty special.”

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