Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie said Stevenson has continued to play well since SEC play started.
"Well, I thought he played great. Perry has been playing very well for us, ever since our conference started, he's got a lot more confidence," Gillispie said. "I think he can play a lot better. As well as he did play I thought he needs to learn how to help his teammates defensively, (and) he can be such a shot blocking force in the lane.
"But he was fantastic for us. He made good decisions for the most part. He's a guy up there are the top of the circle that can make that 15-footer."
Stevenson's five blocks all came in the first half, and he helped UK post a season-high nine blocks.
"It has everything to do with effort, and being in the right position to block the shot, and the desire to play at a very, very high level," Gillispie said.
Stevenson said the Wildcats were just doing what Gillispie had been teaching them.
"Just trying to do what coach G says, just try to out-tough teams, not let the game be pretty and we'll have a chance to win," he said.
Stevenson grabbed three offensive rebounds, and his biggest of the game came when he pulled down Derrick Jasper's missed 3-pointer, which later led to a putback by Patrick Patterson that tied the game at 56-all with 3 minutes, 48 seconds to play.
It was that kind of effort that helped free up Patterson, who has been Kentucky's only inside force for much of the season. But Patterson finished with 20 points and a game-high eight boards and three blocked shots, and credited Stevenson with taking some pressure off of him
"It helped a lot (that) every time they would double down, Perry would knock down the jump shot at the free-throw line or would dive down low," Patterson said. "He's just a versatile big. He can knock down the shot, he can post down low, and he can run the court. So every time they would double on him or double on me, one of us would be open."
Patterson had three assists, all on baskets to Stevenson.
In the first half, Patterson hit Stevenson for an alley-oop dunk after breaking the Tennessee press to cut the Volunteers' lead to 20-16 with 8:39 left. A few minutes later, Patterson was double-teamed out top, but found Stevenson along the baseline for an easy dunk to cut Tennessee's lead to 24-23 with 5:16 left in the half.
Stevenson said Patterson just frees things up so much for the rest of the team.
"Every time he touched the ball it's a great possession," Stevenson said. "He's not a selfish person. If he doesn't have the shot, he's going to kick it back out and most of the time it's wide open.
"That was pretty much it, get the ball to Pat and he does magic. He opens so much up for everybody else."
Stevenson was just glad he could help Patterson carry the load and help Kentucky knock off two top-20 teams back-to-back for the first time since the 2005 NCAA Tournament, when the Wildcats beat Utah and Cincinnati.
"Being a freshman, he has a lot to think about and has high expectations, and I'm one of the first one to say he can do it all even without my help," Stevenson said. "But I guess he kind of appreciated it tonight."
