Close throughout, Tennessee's Wayne Chism hit two three's in the final two minutes of the half to extend the Vols lead to seven, including one in which he banked in from the right corner. The WVU fans didn't want it to count since he didn't call bank, but that's life.

Chism leads all scorers with 12 points, while Chris Lofton has scored nine points. Lofton, criticized in the early season for his poor three-point shooting, has gone 1-for-4 from downtown, continuing his struggles in that department. One other note for Tennessee, JaJuan Smith is having a game to forget. The Vols leading scorer coming into the night, is just 1-for-7 from the field, including 0-for-5 from downtown with no rebounds, one assist, three steals and two personal fouls. Yikes.

Overall, each team is right around 40-percent from the field.

For West Virginia, Darris Nichols leads the Mountaineers with six points, including four from the free-throw line, while a total of seven WVU players have scored points.

Tennessee should be able to use its superior athleticism in the second half to pull away, but anything's possible, especially if the game continues to be called as tightly as it has been in the first half when each team finished well over the limit.

The crowd seems to have thinned a bit, with most of the casual fans leaving for the vening since it's approaching 11pm ET, but the Tennessee crowd and WVU crowd are still going strong.

One side note, each team brought along their band, something that would impress our resident Rink Rat, Elliot Olshansky. Yes Elliot, I have now seen the New Mexico State pep band.