Illinois basketball's upset bid of No. 1 Tennessee fell just short on Saturday when Volunteers senior Jordan Gainey went coast-to-coast for a game-winning bucket as time expired. Gainey's heroics were a punch in the gut for the Fighting Illini, who led by three at several points in the last few minutes but failed to execute in crunch time to close it out. Missed shots, missed free throws and turnovers plagued Illinois down the stretch, but head coach Brad Underwood admitted one key mistake he made in the 66-64 loss.

“I should've called the timeout. Point blank, I should've called the timeout … and got our defense set,” Underwood said, via Jeremy Werner of Illini Inquirer.

The moment Underwood was referring to came on Gainey's game-winning play. After Kasparas Jakucionis split a pair of free throws to tie the game at 64-64, Underwood could've called timeout to get his defense set. Instead, the Illinois basketball coach let things play out, with Gainey charging full-steam ahead against a defense that didn't look ready for such an aggressive drive to the basket. Gainey finished the bucket, and that was the game:

Gainey scored 18 of his game-high 23 points in the second half. Jakucionis scored a team-high 22 points for the Fighting Illini, but he committed a number of late mistakes that helped cost them the game.

Illinois basketball adds another heartbreaking loss to resume

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This loss to Tennessee was the second time in a week Illinois basketball suffered a close defeat. The Fighting Illini recently lost a late five-point lead against rival Northwestern and ultimately lost in overtime. Brad Underwood was asked about the poor late-game execution after the loss to Tennessee.

“You got to execute on both sides of it, and they did a better job of it than we did.”

Underwood is dealing with a totally overhauled roster this season, so it's not the biggest surprise to see the team struggling in close games, though Illinois did recently pull out a hard-fought home win over Wisconsin. The good news is this issue should become less of one as the season goes on and the roster gets more comfortable with each other. There's a lot of talent in place, led by a lottery talent in Jakucionis. It should be expected that he performs better in crunch time down the road.

The Fighting Illini have the talent of a top-10 team and are a few plays away from being one. As long as they fix their clutch problems, Illinois basketball will be a tough out in March.