BATON ROUGE - Bo Spencer reeled off 15 of his game-high 25 points in the second half to spark the LSU men's basketball valiant rally, but the Tigers furious comeback effort fell short 59-54 against No. 14 Tennessee Thursday at the Maravich Center.

The Tigers (9-13, 0-8 SEC) trailed 51-37 with 8:09 remaining as Spencer ignited the LSU rally by canning a three-pointer, a mid-range jumper and a quartet of free throws. Freshman Darren Populist tacked on a three-ball and Tasmin Mitchell added a lay-up to pull the Tigers back to 53-49 at the 2:29 mark.

Tennessee's Wayne Chism responded with a lay-up 14 seconds later, but Spencer fired back with another jumper on the Tigers next possession.

With the score 55-51 and 17 seconds on the clock, Mitchell was fouled on a three-point attempt. He calmly stepped to the line and buried all three free throws to make it 55-54.

The Volunteers (17-4, 5-2 SEC) used a pair of free throws from Bobby Maze and Scotty Hopson sandwiched in between a game-tying, three-point miss by Mitchell that bounced off the back iron to escape with the 59-54 win.

Mitchell finished with 13 points and secured a game-high 17 rebounds for his ninth double-double of the season. The 13 points allowed the Denham Springs native to eclipse Chris Jackson (1988-90) for seventh place on the LSU's scoring list.

Aaron Dotson and Storm Warren chipped in six and five points, respectively, for LSU.

Tennessee was paced by Chism, who connected for 20 points on 9-of-15 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds. The Tigers limited Hopson and J.P. Prince to eight points apiece.   

LSU stormed out to an early 5-0 lead aided by a pair of Spencer baskets before the Volunteers fired back with 19 of the next 22 points over the next 10 minutes.

The Tigers got back to 22-16 on a Spencer three-ball with 1:45 left before Tennessee responded with Chism and Prince lay-ups to take a 26-16 advantage into the locker room.

LSU returns to action Saturday against No. 3 Kentucky. Tip-off is slated for 3 p.m. on the SEC Network.  The afternoon will feature the retirement of the jersey of LSU All-American Rudy Macklin, who led the Tigers to the NCAA Final Four in 1981. Fans also can listen to the game on the LSU Sports Radio Network (New Country 100.7 FM The Tiger in Baton Rouge) and online at LSUsports.net in the Geaux Zone.