Prince hit a pair of free throws to make it a three-point game, and Tennessee wisely fouled before Memphis could go for a tying 3. Derrick Rose made the first attempt in a 1-and-1, but had to miss the second intentionally, in hopes the Tigers could grab the rebound.

No way. Tennessee came down with it and Lofton was fouled. He only went 2-of-11 from the field, but calmly sank the two foul shots that finished off the Tigers’ perfect record.

While Rose was trying to miss at the line, Memphis clanked plenty of shots it wanted to make. The Tigers, one of the nation’s worst free throw-shooting teams, lived up to their ranking by making just 8-of-17 at the line.

Rose led Memphis with 23 points, but Chris Douglas-Roberts was the only other player in double figures with 14.

The Tigers looked in good shape when Douglas-Roberts scored on a layup with 2:28 left, putting his team up 61-58.

Then Smith went to work. He answered with a drive of his own, pulling the Vols to 61-60, then hit the game winner — but only after Memphis squandered three chances on one possession to extend the margin.

Doneal Mack missed a 3, but the Tigers grabbed a long rebound. Rose missed, and Memphis chased it down again. Finally, after playing without the ball for some 90 seconds, the Vols finally grabbed it away off an attempt by Dozier that banged the front of the rim.

The teams started out like they both intended to go for 100.

Tennessee made its first four shots, two of them from 3-point range. Memphis connected on its first three, all of them outside the arc. So intense was the action, the first TV timeout didn’t come until the game was more than 7 minutes old.

They couldn’t keep up the pace. Tennessee wound up making only 38 percent (24 of 64) from the field. Memphis finished just shy of 40 percent on 23-of-58 shooting, failing to make any 3s in the second half after hitting five of their first eight from beyond the stripe; they wound up 8 of 27.

The Tigers couldn’t pull off another last-minute escape, as they did a week earlier when rallying from 7 down in the final 90 seconds at UAB.

“I thought we had them at end,” said Calipari, sweat dripping off his brow. “They made plays and we didn’t, which is really unusual for us.”

Pearl was the prophet on this night.

Minus his garish orange jacket, the coach attended the pep rally a couple of hours before tipoff, firing up the faithful at a sports restaurant near the FedExForum. He made a bold promise: “All I can tell you is we’re 40 minutes away from being No. 1.”

Then his team proved him right.

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