Grant Williams scored 19 points on Saturday and Tennessee teammate Chris Darrington wasn't the least impressed.

"He should have 30," the junior guard said. "He missed some easy ones."

Williams fell one point shy of his fourth 20-point outing of the season and also contributed eight rebounds and three blocked shots to help the No. 24 Volunteers post an 81-71 victory over Lipscomb in a nonconference contest at Knoxville, Tenn.

Williams was 6-of-11 shooting in the victory as Tennessee (7-1) continued its strong start.

Junior forward Admiral Schofield scored 13 points, senior guard James Daniel III tallied 12 points on four 3-pointers and Darrington added 11 for the Volunteers.

Tennessee is nationally ranked for the first time since December 2010 and received a tougher test than expected from a Lipscomb squad that lost by 22 points to Alabama and 23 to Texas earlier this season.

"We could have really gotten a bigger lead in the first half if we were better on the offensive end," Volunteers coach Rick Barnes said. "Then we came out very lethargic and went to our depth and our bench and they got it going for us a little bit in the second half."

Junior guard Garrison Mathews scored 19 of his 22 points in the second half for Lipscomb (6-4). Junior forward Eli Pepper scored 10 points and collected a season-high 15 rebounds before fouling out.

The Bisons refused to go away and back-to-back baskets by Pepper pulled them within 69-62 with 3:22 remaining. But Pepper fouled out with 2:16 left and Williams later hit a jumper to push the lead back to 11 as the Volunteers closed it out.

"I felt like our team did a great job putting ourselves in position to win," Lipscomb coach Casey Alexander said. "Tennessee executed and played well. Our guys played hard. Sometimes, it's just the way the ball bounces. "

Tennessee received 30 bench points to Lipscomb's 12 -- a key element in the victory in the eyes of Barnes.

"In the first half, we had a lot of guys that sat for a long time because of two fouls," said Barnes, "and I thought those (bench) guys did do a good job."

The Volunteers held Lipscomb to 39.7 percent from the field and forced 15 turnovers.

"We were pretty good until Admiral gave up a few backdoor cuts at the end," Barnes said in reference to the consecutive baskets by Pepper.

Tennessee led by 13 at halftime but Lipscomb dominated the first six minutes of the second half.

Mathews converted a three-point play and knocked down a 3-pointer and junior forward Matt Rose hit a 3-pointer to cap the half-opening 13-4 surge to pull the Bisons within 44-40 with 14:02 left.

A three-point play by Mathews cut Tennessee's advantage to 50-47 with 11:20 remaining before the Volunteers gained some separation with an 11-3 run. Williams' three-point play culminated the burst and increased Tennessee's lead to 61-50 with 8:28 to play.

The strong second half by Mathews allowed Lipscomb to hang around until the final the final minutes.

"Garrison's mentality changed a little bit early on in the second half," Alexander said. "He had some success early and can score in bunches."

Tennessee connected on its last six shots in the first half to open up a 40-27 lead at break. Schofield and Daniel each had nine points over the first 20 minutes.

The Volunteers opened up a 17-7 lead after Williams' dunk with 11:49 left in the half. Lipscomb responded with a 12-5 burst with sophomore guard Kenny Cooper's layup cutting Tennessee's lead to 22-19 with 6:24 remaining.

A dunk by sophomore guard Lemonte Turner started a 16-5 run as the Volunteers increased their lead to 14. Turner drained a baseline jumper just prior to the buzzer to account for the 13-point halftime lead.

NOTES: Lipscomb fell to 0-11 all-time against Top 25 teams. ... Tennessee sophomore G Lemonte Turner had just seven points on 3-for-10 shooting after matching his career high of 24 points in Sunday's victory over Georgia Tech. ... Bisons junior G Garrison Mathews recorded his fifth 20-point outing of the season. ... The Volunteers have won all four meetings between the schools.