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Tennessee 71, Georgia 63

Posted: Saturday March 02, 2002 08:43 PM

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KNOXVILLE, Tennessee (Ticker) -- Marcus Haislip scored 18 points to lead Tennessee to a 71-63 overtime victory over 15th-ranked Georgia in a Southeastern Conference matchup.

The win snaps Tennessee's (14-15, 7-9 SEC East) four-game losing streak and gave the Volunteers the fourth seed out of the East. They will meet Arkansas in an opening-round game of the SEC tournament on Thursday.

Vincent Yarbrough added 17 points and Jenis Grindstaff 12 for the Volunteers, who finished 2-1 in overtime this season.

"It feels good," Tennessee coach Buzz Peterson said. "It's been some time since we had a victory." Jarvis Hayes scored 28 points and Chris Daniels added 12 for Georgia (21-8, 10-6 SEC East), who finished tied for the top spot in the Eastern Division with Kentucky and Florida.

"It's disappointing," Bulldogs coach Jim Harrick said. "We would have liked to have won the division outright. We won four league games on the road and in a league this tough, that's pretty good." Despite the loss, Georgia earned the top seed in the SEC tournament by virtue of a head-to-head sweep of Kentucky. The Bulldogs will open play on Friday against the winner of the Vanderbilt-Louisiana State matchup.

Trailing 35-25 at halftime, the Volunteers scored 15 of the first 20 points of the second half, tying the game 40-40 with 14:45 left in regulation. Grindstaff scored five points during the spurt.

The Bulldogs went on a 10-4 run, making it 50-44 with 9:42 left as Hayes scored six points over that span but Tennessee came back with a 10-4 run of its own over the next 4:38, tying the game again.

Hayes gave Georgia a 60-58 lead with just under two minutes left but Tennessee forward Brandon Crump answered with a layup, sending the game into overtime tied, 60-60. Crump scored six points and grabbed seven rebounds.

"In the second half, I told our guys to spread the floor and drive it," Peterson said. "We got some points off that. Brandon Crump had some nice plays and some big rebounds." The Volunteers opened the extra session with a 6-1 run and did not allow the Bulldogs to come within more than five points after Hayes cut the deficit to 68-63 with 59 seconds left.

Georgia entered off an overtime victory over South Carolina on Wednesday.

"We had two overtime games in one week and that was too much to overcome," Harrick said. "We had enough shots. Tennessee played really well in the second half." .