GAINESVILLE -- Florida entered the week ranked eighth in the country and with its sights set on a high seed in the NCAA Tournament. But after a second consecutive loss Saturday, coach Billy Donovan and the Gators were talking National Invitation Tournament.

Florida fell 75-70 at home to Tennessee, breaking a 19-game home winning streak and marking the first time UF has lost back-to-back games since 2009-10 — a span of more than 60 games.

“Coach Donovan wrote it on the board [after the game],” UF guard Brad Beal said. “We’re 7-3 in the league right now. He said the way we’re going, we might be in the NIT if we don’t turn it around right now.”

UF (19-6, 7-3 Southeastern Conference) lost by 20 points against Kentucky on Tuesday, and much of the same mistakes followed the Gators into Saturday’s game. They were outrebounded 36-30, turned the ball over 15 times and shot poorly from the field until the final minutes, when the game was already out of reach.

Tennessee (13-12, 5-5) led by as many as 17 points in the first half, as UF struggled from the start. An easy layup in the lane from guard Trae Golden with 13:09 left put the Vols up 11-10 and started a 15-2 run.

“We thought going into the game that we were going to be pretty confident and we were going to practice hard,” Beal said. “But we didn’t practice hard and it ended up showing [Saturday]. Coach Donovan even said that. He said he had a feeling we were going to come out pretty slow and we ended up doing it.”

Tennessee started to run away with the game after Florida forward Will Yeguete went down with an injury six minutes into the game. Yeguete turned the ball over in transition but chased down Vols forward Jarnell Stokes and blocked his fast-break layup attempt before landing awkwardly under the basket.

Yeguete sustained a concussion and a large cut above his right eye that required stitches, and his absence in the post hurt the Gators for the rest of the game. He is doubtful for Tuesday’s game against Alabama.

Already slim on numbers with guard Mike Rosario and forward Cody Larson out, Donovan was forced to play his starting five for the majority of the game.

“These are kind of the experiences where you get hardened a little bit,” Donovan said. “Our team needs to be hardened a little bit. We need to be more battle-tested, battle-weary so to speak. We need to go through some of that stuff.”

Beal and guard Kenny Boynton led Florida with 16 points each, and forward Erik Murphy finished with 12. Tennessee’s Golden led all scorers with 17, and Volunteers forward Jeronne Maymon added 15 points and 11 rebounds, including eight on the offensive glass.

Tennessee outscored UF 36-14 in the paint and got 17 second-chance points.

In an extended postgame speech to his team, Donovan said he brought up the 2007-08 Gators as an illustration of what could happen to this year’s team. That year, Florida started 18-3 before losing seven of its last 10 and ending up in the NIT.

“We’re at a tough stretch for our team,” Donovan said. “We’re 7-3 in our league after 10 games. We have six games left. … I don’t feel like we don’t have the opportunity to go to the NCAA Tournament. I was just using it as an example of don’t take for granted what you have in front of you.”