News bulletin: Tennessee refused to lose four basketball games in a row.

Details: Volunteers smacked Louisville in the mouth. Some called it physicality or determined defense or brute force. Others thought offensive power in the paint was the winning edge. Vols hit 54.7 percent.

Highlight was three 3-pointers in 53 seconds. Cardinals failed to respond. Big crowd cheered.

Losers hit seven of 34 three-point attempts. Losers struggled without injured point guard Mikel Brown. He leads the team in assists and averages 16.6 points.

Net result: Knockout was even more decisive than the score, Tennessee 83, Louisville 62. There was cause for some surprise. It was only the second loss of the season for the Cardinals. Vols are now 8-3.

Rick Barnes said the they delivered the defense he’s been looking for, maybe the best of the season.

“Obviously really, really proud of our guys. We had a tough stretch there. That last 10 days of practice, they’ve worked hard. Learned a lot the last 10 days. You learn a lot from three losses. I really felt we were locked in.”

Barnes recognized offensive improvement.

“More mentally than anything … we weren’t perfect but we’ve been really bad offensively. I mean just no organization … nobody knew what was going on … we got closer to playing like we practice.”

Louisville coach Pat Kelsey didn’t seem all that shocked by what happened. He said his team was aware of Tennessee’s strength, that the Cardinals were ready for a fight but they weren’t good enough in several aspects.

“We got tough kids. We got gritty, tough dudes that fight. I don’t know.”

The coach was troubled by Tennessee averaging 1.4 points per possession.

“That’s gaudy. That’s unacceptable. Credit Tennessee. It was the better team tonight. Tough, physical team. Coach Barnes’ teams are always that way.”

There were hot and cold streaks. Tennessee jumped ahead by 19-9. Louisville adjusted and closed to 29-24. The Vols missed free throws but led 34-27 at halftime.

Tennessee broke the game open after intermission.

In summation, the Vols had some interesting developments. There was one mismatch. Vol reserves outscored the visitors by 34-3.

Ja’Kobi Gillespie scored three points in the first half and 20 after intermission. He had five assists, three rebounds and three turnovers.

Nate Ament was more aggressive and better than he has recently been. He had 13 points, seven rebounds, three assists and only two turnovers. He missed major minutes because of foul trouble.

A whole flock of NBA scouts, coaches and general managers got complimentary seats to evaluate the performance of somebody. They didn’t say it was or wasn’t Nate.

Jaylen Carey was a big bully around the basket. He scored 10 of his 12 points before halftime. The Cardinals couldn’t handle him. He finished with 10 rebounds.

“I think Jaylen could be terrific,” said Barnes. “Think about it, if he makes his free throws, he’s got what, a 20-point night.”

The coach said sophomore guard Ethan Burg “played the way we need him to play.

“It’s been a tough 10 days for him. I’ve been hard on him. Had a long talk with him the other night, about 40 minutes. Told him exactly what I felt, what I thought he needed to do. He responded.”

I think Barnes couldn’t avoid a hint of a smile at the thought of freshman wing Amari Evans scoring seven points and fouling out in seven minutes.

“Well, that’s what we see every day in practice. He can score at all three levels. He fouls every day in practice. He plays hard, he’s aggressive, he’s going to impact the game. He’s going to have to learn to play without fouling.”

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