Rick Barnes explains that Darlinstone Dubar is playing 7 minutes at Vandy

NASHVILLE — Darlingstone Dubar finished the first half with three points on 1-for-3 shooting Saturday at Vanderbilt. He hit one shot from the 3-point line in his seven minutes on the floor at Memorial Gymnasium.

According to Rick Barneshe should have had at least a few more shots attempted in the first half of no. 6, Tennessee’s 76-75 loss to the Commodores.

The shots he didn’t take and what the Vols (16-2, 3-2 SEC) needed on defense in the second half are why Barnes didn’t play. Dubar did not play after the break.

“I thought early on he had a chance to shoot the ball twice,” Barnes said. “He didn’t. And we’ve worked on it enough. I mean, he’s good at it. We talk about not forcing shots, but when there are shots, they have to be taken.”

Darlinstone Dubar paced Tennessee with 12 points in a 74-70 win at Texas

Dubar ignited Tennessee with 12 points in a late rally to a 74-70 win at Texas on Saturday, then played 11 scoreless minutes in the 74-56 win over Georgia Wednesday in Knoxville, going 0-for-2 from the floor.

The Vols led Vanderbilt 26-21 with 8:28 left in the first half Saturday on Dubar’s 3-pointer after leading by as many as eight points in the first 10 minutes. But it was a 41-35 deficit at halftime, after Zakai Zeigler sat the last seven minutes of the first half after picking up two fouls.

Vanderbilt would extend the lead to 16 points midway through the second half before Tennessee used the final 11 minutes to get it back to a one-possession game in the final seconds.

“Defensively, it really is what it was,” Barnes said of Dubar not playing in the second half. “We kept thinking we’re trying to get some defensive guys when we needed defensive stops.”

Chaz Lanier scored a team-high 17 points on 4-for-6 shooting from the 3-point line, but had what would have been a game-tying layup blocked with five seconds left, then missed what would have been a game-tying free throw with 2.8 seconds left. He also made a season-high five turnovers.

Zeigler finished with 16 points, 10 assists, three rebounds and three assists. Igor Millicic and Felix Okpara each scored 16 points.

Barnes used a six-man rotation in the second half. Zeigler played all 20 minutes in the second half, Okapara played 19, Lanier played 18 and Milicic and Jordan Gainey both played 17. Cade Phillips played one minute.

“When the Shack (Jahmai Mashack was) in the game, I thought he got into some tough situations at the end of the shot,” Barnes said, “but it’s not always up to him. We must have purer possessions than that.

“Then you come down, we think we’ve got to have some offense, so we’re going that way. Maybe give up a little bit on the defensive end. We’ve got to get — and I’ve told our team — we can play different lineups , but there are certain things that can never give (up).

Rick Barnes: ‘We can’t give in on the defensive end’

Vanderbilt’s 76 points were a season-high against Tennessee’s defense, which gave up 73 at Florida 11 days ago.

Vandy outrebounded the Vols 29-25, had 12 offensive rebounds, scored 18 second-chance points and had 34 points in the paint. The Commodores shot 46.4% from the field and 50.0% from the 3-point line in the second half.

“We can’t give up on the defensive end regardless of whether we play along, says D-Stone and Igor,” Barnes said. “Can’t give up there. Regardless, we can’t give up rebounds, offensively or defensively. And we had too much of that tonight.”