The 10,000 white T-shirts and energetic crowd were not enough to pull Alabama out of it current slump Saturday night.

The Alabama men’s basketball team was blown out by Tennessee, 76-59, dropping its second straight game; the Crimson Tide lost on the road at Auburn, 74-55, on Thursday.

(See also “UA SGA president Jimmy Taylor misses Iron Bowl trophy presentation in Auburn”)

Saturday also marked Alabama’s second consecutive double-digit defeat.

“Tennessee was the better team tonight, give them credit,” Alabama coach Anthony Grant said. “They stepped up, had an answer for everything that we tried to throw at them from a defensive standpoint. They did a great job limiting our opportunities on the offensive end.”

The Volunteers (14-7, 5-3 SEC) jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the game and never looked back. Alabama managed to shave its deficit down to as much as one point, but The Crimson Tide never saw a lead on its home court.

Part of that was because of poor shooting.

Alabama (9-12, 3-5 SEC) struggled from the field, especially from downtown, shooting 39 percent (20-of-51) from the field and 20 percent (3-of-15) from behind the three-point line.

Tennessee, on the other hand, saw its shots go through the bottom of the net, shooting 48 percent from the floor and 45 percent from beyond the arch. The Volunteers also shot 71 percent from the floor in the second half.

“I told our guys, ‘You’ve got to take shots,’” Tennessee coach Cuonzo Martin said. “We felt like they would probably play a zone most of the night, and when shots present themselves you’ve got to take a shot. If you miss them you miss them.”

The Crimson Tide also turned the basketball over seven times, resulting in 10 points for Tennessee.

But the Volunteers benefited from making the most of its time on the offensive end of the floor.

Jarnell Stokes paced the Volunteers with 22 points and 16 rebounds, while Jordan McRae led Tennessee, and all scorers, with 26 points.

“You’ve got to get stops,” Grant said. “You’ve got to be able to limit their opportunities, whether it was zone or man or in the press, we couldn’t muster up what we had to muster up to get those stops.”

Senior guard Trevor Releford led the way for Alabama with 23 points on 7-of-15 shooting. He also tallied six assists.

(See also “Releford’s 28 points lead Alabama to win over Bulldogs”)

Junior forward Nick Jacobs tacked on 13 points and led the Crimson Tide with six rebounds. Releford and Jacobs were the only two Alabama players to score in double digits.

Releford said he, as the lone senior on the roster, must step up and try to help his teammates out of this slump.

“You’ve got to keep motivating,” Releford said. “You’ve got to keep trying to lead, like Coach (Grant) tells me every day. You’ve just got to stick with it, and that’s what I’ve got to try to do throughout rest of the season.”

Alabama’s next game will be Wednesday Feb. 5 when the Crimson Tide travels to Fayetteville, Ark., to face the Razorbacks. The game will tip off at 7 p.m. and be televised by SEC TV.