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KNOXVILLE -- Tennessee men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl offered a straightforward explanation Wednesday night for the back-to-back losses his team will carry into the start of its Southeastern Conference schedule.

It had little to do with what the 15th-ranked Volunteers (9-4) did wrong Saturday at defending national champion Kansas or Wednesday in an 89-79 overtime loss to Gonzaga.

"It's simple: Kansas and Gonzaga," Pearl said. "Nothing else to explain."

Still, Pearl admitted UT's second defeat at the hands of the Bulldogs in less than six weeks, which ended a 37-game home winning streak that spanned almost three years, was "a tough one to swallow."

Tennessee allowed a 45-33 lead early in the second half to evaporate in a matter of minutes and later rallied to force overtime only to watch the Bulldogs pull away in the extra period.

"We're going to have to forget about it," said UT junior center Wayne Chism, who had 15 points and a career-high 19 rebounds. "We can't just sit here and nag about losing to Gonzaga here at home. I don't care what they say on TV. We're going to bounce back, and we're going to defend our title in the SEC."

The Vols will travel to Georgia (9-6) for their conference opener Saturday at noon.

Pearl, shrugging off consecutive losses to two traditionally strong programs, came up with a few positives for UT to take from its first non-conference home loss in his four years as head coach.

"There were times we played some of the best basketball that we've played in a while," he said. "I was pleased with the way the team bounced back from the difficult loss at Kansas where we didn't play well. We had a lot of stretches (Wednesday night) where we played excellent."

Redshirt freshman guard Cameron Tatum was single-handedly responsible for one of them.

Starting in place of freshman Scotty Hopson, who was weakened by a bout with the flu, Tatum helped UT climb out of an early 6-0 hole by scoring 14 consecutive points in less than three minutes for a 14-7 lead.

He finished with a career-best 22 points on 8-of-16 shooting, matching his previous career high of 19 points by halftime.

"It was just one of those days," said Tatum, who made only his third career start. "I was really amped and ready for this game and my first start at home. I think that really got me amped, and I just tried to take advantage of it and put my team in a good position to win."

Pearl only wished Tatum would have kept firing away.

"In the second half, instead of shooting the ball and just catching it and being ready to shoot it, it was a shot fake," Pearl said of Tatum, who was 1-of-6 from the floor after halftime.

"Those were the same shots he was getting in the first half. I would have loved for Cameron to have pulled the trigger a couple more times in the second half, so he's got to continue to stay aggressive."

Junior forward Tyler Smith picked up some of the slack, overcoming a two-point first half to finish with 17 points.

"He really battled back," Pearl said. "I don't know why he was struggling early. He's a great competitor. Whatever was ailing him, he was able to overcome it with his desire to compete."

More importantly, Smith seemed to be "OK," Pearl said, after suffering an apparent leg injury on a hard fall along the baseline with 1:27 remaining in overtime. The Vols' scoring leader walked to the bench on his own and returned to the game seconds later.

"We'll take a look at that," Pearl added.

Pearl said junior forward J.P. Prince, who had a costly missed layup in the opening minute of overtime, also "is just still not 100 percent" after missing three games last month with an injured left ankle.

"He just doesn't have any lift, and it really affects him," Pearl said of Prince's ankle.

Tennessee has more to worry about, though, than just health issues. Pearl noted that the Vols shot 1-of-18 from 3-point range with the exception of Tatum, who was 5-of-10, and they shot just 36.3 percent from the field for the game.

But the difference in the game, Pearl said, was UT's defense, which allowed Gonzaga to shoot 55.2 percent from the floor in the second half.

"We've just got to continue to try to get better," Tatum said.

"Like Coach said, there was a lot of progress we made (Wednesday). The passion was there. The poise was there at times. The purpose was there. Our main worry now is completion. We've just got to complete these games, because we're right there every time."