Tennessee defied tough odds. Jordan Gainey made the big plays. The top-ranked basketball Volunteers are 10-0.

Under intense pressure in a hostile setting, Gainey saved the second half of the hard-fought game at Illinois. He scored 18 points in 14 minutes. He played the point without a turnover. That was good.

With time running out, Gainey stunned the Fighting Illini and the house full of very loud fans with a length-of-the-floor dribble drive and a contested layup – with half a second to spare. That was better. Here’s that shot on Facebook.

The 66-64 victory wasn’t exactly a miracle but it took an incredible effort and raw courage. The Vols were foul-plagued. They endured many crucial minutes after intermission without Zakai Zeigler and Chaz Lanier. Both eventually fouled out.

There were other problems. The first half was really ragged. Tennessee hit six goals in 28 attempts. The visitors were some better after the rest stop but never really sharp. Igor Milicic finished 2-for-13 but had 14 rebounds. Lanier was 5-for-17 and missed four free throws.

Gainey was 6-for-14 and led with 23 points. He didn’t turn cartwheels or do a lot of jumping around after the winning shot.

Tough media question: Did he really think the ball was going in?

“Definitely, as soon as I put it up on the glass, I looked through the hoop and saw it rattling up there. And then it finally went through and I saw my teammates coming.

“But you know, we work on that play just about every day in practice. We work on late-game situations, so we were all prepared for the moment.”

Gainey was a bit surprised that nobody really impeded his progress from one end of the court to the other. Nobody tried to stop the ball.

“I saw my defender keep backing up, and he just kept backing up, and he was just dead in the water, and it was too late for them to send a double, probably two seconds left.

“I was already at the rim at that point.”

Teammates celebrated. Rick Barnes was pleased.

“I thought this was a big thing for him. We had said ‘Hey, man, we got to come through. You got to do it,’ and he worked really hard. And they guard hard. I mean, it was a physical game.”

Barnes said he was proud of Jordan.

“Everything he gets, he’s worked for it. He’s earned it, and I’m just so glad he’s with us.”

Tennessee worked hard for everything it got at Illinois. Lanier was the only successful field-goal shooter for the first 13 minutes. Ziggy finally added a layup with 6:38 to go before halftime. Lanier scored 15 in the first half. He had two after intermission.

Barnes singled out three plays that made a big difference in the second half.

“One would be D-Stone’s little floater (Darlinstone Dubar, just back from concussion precautions). We were hemorrhaging right there. I mean, huge play because we were teetering. I think they might have been up six.

“I thought Igor’s steal on the side was a huge play … coming out of a timeout. And then, obviously, Jordan at the end.”

Dubar contributed five rebounds. Cade Phillips had five. Tennessee won the fight for rebounds by five.

Next game: Tennessee plays Western Carolina on Tuesday night at Food City Center.

Marvin West welcomes comments or questions from readers. His address is marvinwest75@gmail.com