KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Victor Bailey Jr., John Fulkerson and Keon Johnson scored 14 points apiece and Tennessee rallied from a 14-point deficit to beat Florida 65-54 on Sunday in the regular-season finale for both teams.
Tennessee (17-7, 10-7 SEC) secured the No. 4 seed and a bye into the Friday's quarterfinals of the conference tournament.
Fulkerson added seven rebounds and four assists and Josiah-Jordan James had eight points and 10 boards for the Volunteers.
Florida used a 13-2 run to take a 31-17 lead with five minutes left in the first half but Tennessee scored 11 of the final 13 first-half points to trim its deficit to five at the break. Florida missed seven consecutive, and 9 of 10, from the field as the Vols ripped off a 21-4 spurt — including eight points by Bailey — to make it 53-43 with 7:33 to play.
"We are an emotional team, a team that has struggled with runs, both positively and negatively, all year," Florida coach Mike White said. "We got off to a really good start the first 15 minutes. Played really well and gave ourselves a shot to come in here and steal one on the road. And then, man. A couple empty possessions; gave in defensively; weren't as sharp in transition defense; defending the glass really failed us. They just pounded us on the glass. Early second half, we came out of the locker room and it was the same thing for the last 20 minutes."
Tyree Appleby had 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting and Colin Castleton added 11 points for Florida (13-9, 9-7).
The fifth-seeded Gators play the winner between No. 12 seed Texas A&M and No. 13 seed Vanderbilt in Thursday's second round.
"Our defensive intensity, we didn't keep it up for the whole 40 minutes," Appleby said. "They came out and punched us in the mouth in the second half and we didn't respond."
After being outrebounded 18-16 in the first half, Tennessee was plus-11 on the glass in the second. Florida had just 21 points after the break, its lowest-scoring half of the season.
"That's just one team playing harder than the other," Appleby said.
The Gators went into the game leading the SEC in free-throw percentage (.760, 37th NCAA), field-goal percentage (.472, 42nd NCAA) and 3-point field-goal percentage (.359, 78th NCAA). On Sunday, they shot 41.7% from the field, made 3 of 13 (23.1%) from behind the arc and hit 11 of 18 (61.1%) free throws.