No. 10 Tennessee downs newly minted No. 1 Alabama

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Rocky Top was too much for top-ranked Alabama.

Zakai Zeigler and Santiago Vescovi each scored 15 points, and No. 10 Tennessee extended the jinx for No. 1 teams, jolting the Crimson Tide 68-59 on Wednesday night.

On Monday, Alabama climbed to the top spot in The Associated Press poll for the first time since the 2002-03 season. But playing for the first time since the rankings came out, the Crimson Tide (22-4, 12-1 SEC) led just once in the early going and committed 19 turnovers.

Alabama's loss was the eighth by an AP No. 1 team this season. That ties 1993-94 for the most in a regular season in the AP poll era (since 1948-49). Purdue has lost three times as No. 1 this season, Houston twice and North Carolina twice.

"We turned the ball over too much tonight," Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats said. "[Tennessee] got 26 points off the turnovers. Their physicality. ... They got into our guards, and we couldn't handle it."

Tennessee bounced back from a pair of last-second defeats despite being without two starters -- Josiah-Jordan James (ankle) and Julian Phillips (hip flexor) -- who have been struggling with injuries. The Volunteers have won six of their past seven games against top-10 teams.

"After those tough losses, we stayed with it," coach Rick Barnes said. "We didn't splinter."

Vols big man Jonas Aidoo added 12 points and 11 rebounds for Tennessee (20-6, 9-5).

"It takes confidence," he said. "We go through the ups and downs. We just do what we do and play hard, and we'll be fine."

Unlike in football, when Tennessee fans stormed their home field after the Volunteers beat No. 3 Alabama 52-49 in October, this sellout crowd stayed in the seats when it was over as "Rocky Top" blared. The Crimson Tide football team also reached No. 1 this past season, making Alabama the first school since Ohio State in 2010-11 (and only the fourth in the past 40 years) to have both its football and men's basketball programs at the top of the AP rankings in the same academic year.

However, Alabama men's basketball is now 2-2 in games as the AP's No. 1, the worst record of any team with multiple stints atop the poll. This season's Tide are the third team in AP poll history to have a regular season with multiple wins against No. 1 teams and a loss as No. 1, joining Pitt in 2008-09 and Missouri in 1989-90. Neither of those teams made the Final Four.

Alabama is 14-13 against top-25 teams during Oats' five years. The Tide became the last Power 5 men's team to lose a conference game this season, and their only lead in this game came at 12-11.

Brandon Miller led Alabama with 15 points along with 10 rebounds, Jaden Bradley added 14 points and Nimari Burnett had 11. Big man Charles Bediako, who has been hobbled with a "minor knee injury" sustained in Saturday's win over Auburn, was able to play and contributed 4 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks.

"We shot 6-of-20 at the rim," Oats said. "[Tennessee] was able to finish stuff at the rim."

Uros Plavsic, who scored 10 points, connected on a three-point play to give Tennessee a 56-47 lead with just over five minutes left in the game.

Vescovi tossed a lob that Olivier Nkamhoua caught in midair and followed with a slam to put Tennessee ahead 19-15 with 7:42 to play in the first half. It was tied at 29 at the break.

"We were down on ourselves a little bit," Zeigler said. "We were down 17 [in the second half Saturday against Missouri] and we came back. We have to bring that [second-half effort] every night."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.