Vols can't finish in Chapel Hill

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Tennessee has proven it can play with anybody.

The Vols played then-No. 16 Wisconsin tight in the first day of the Maui Jim Maui Invitational and forced then-No. 13 Oregon into overtime the next day. On Sunday, they led No. 7 North Carolina for 29 minutes, 38 seconds, including a five-point lead with 4:32 left in the game.

The common theme between all three games is that UT walked away with a loss. A costly turnover, an inability to grab a defensive rebound and a poor shot decision all played a part in the Vols squandering a late lead and losing to the Tar Heels, 73-71, inside the Dean E. Smith Center.

For a young team that features 10 underclassmen on scholarship, it would be easy to declare moral victories and celebrate, but Rick Barnes is not having any of that.

“I don’t buy being young (as an excuse),” the second-year UT head coach said. “We’ve lost three games to three teams that were in the Sweet 16, the Elite Eight and the Final Four (last season), and we’re in this game to win. Being close is not good enough. … It’s easy to go into the locker room and say we did this and we did that, but the truth is, we came to win and we didn’t.”

Throughout the second half, UT (4-4) withstood every flurry North Carolina (10-1) threw at it, but in the final minutes, the Vols could not close out their first victory over an AP top-10 opponent since Feb. 26, 2013 (Florida, 75-70) and their first win over UNC since 1949.

After a Kenny Williams layup cut UT’s lead to 68-65 with four minutes to play, Jordan Bowden had a wide-open three on the wing that would have turned the tide right back in the Vols favor.

He missed it.

“I’d let him take that shot 100 times in a row,” Barnes said. “But, you know, it’s a game of makes and misses sometimes.”

From there, seldom went right for UT.

Nate Britt got an easy basket at the rim to make it a one-point game, and a minute later the Tar Heels took their first lead since the 14:37 mark of the first half on a layup by Justin Jackson.

A turnover by freshman forward Grant Williams followed, but the Vols were able to force a missed shot, only to give up an offensive rebound. Another a miss ensued, but so did another offensive board, this one a tip-in by Brandon Robinson to make it 72-69 with 50 seconds left.

Freshman forward John Fulkerson, who finished with eight points on 4-for-4 shooting while adding four rebounds and two steals, answered immediately with a layup of his own. Another stop and another offensive rebound led to Kennedy Meeks hitting one of two free throws, leaving the Vols 8.9 seconds to tie or win the game.

Redshirt freshman guard Lamonte Turner inbounded the ball to Fulkerson and got it right back, rushing down the court before heaving up a heavily-contested layup that was blocked.

“In that situation, if you attack the rim, somebody is going to be open,” Barnes said. “We had four different outlets there and took probably the worst shot we could take.”

With a sizeable height advantage inside — North Carolina started three players taller than UT’s tallest starter, Fulkerson (6-foot-7) — the Tar Heels were expected to dominate on the glass, and they did, outrebounding the Vols 41-32 while gathering 22 offensive boards. UNC scored 25 second-chance points.

Just about everything else came out of left field.

Senior Robert Hubbs III, who scored a game-high 21 points on 9-for-11 shooting, led the charge for a UT team that grabbed as much as a 15-point led in the first half. The Vols 65.4 percent shooting clip in the opening period was the fourth-highest ever by a UNC opponent in Chapel Hill.

In the second half, the Tar Heels spouted off rally after rally, but Tennessee always had an answer, at least until the very end.

“It’s tough because we worked really hard for this,” Hubbs said. “This is a game we had circled on the schedule since last year, so it’s tough because we were right there. We just have to find a way to win.”

There are no moral victories in UT’s locker room, but there is something to build off. The Vols have three games coming up in the next seven days, capped by a matchup against No. 8 Gonzaga in the Battle on Broadway in Nashville on Sunday.

“We feel like we can play with anybody,” Bowden said. “We just have to do what we have to do … and we’ll get it together.”