FAYETTEVILLE - Some will scan the combined 34 for 118 shooting from the field and final, 58-48 score and presume that Arkansas won ugly over Tennessee in Saturday’s SEC game before another Walton Arena full house.
Eric Musselman won’t be among them. Not just because his 23rd-ranked Razorbacks beat Coach Rick Barnes’ 16th-ranked Volunteers but because they did so with both teams ascending defensive zeniths.
“Wow!” Musselman said on postgame radio. “We are really, really defending! To hold a really good team to 27 percent (16 of 59 from the field) And they really defended us, too (18 of 59 from the field). There were no easy looks in this basketball game. I mean those are two of the best defensive teams in the entire country. This was a great game to watch if you like physical toughness. Every possession is just a war on both sides of the ball.”
No Razorback relishes that style more than Jaylin Williams, the 6-10 sophomore center double-doubling on the Vols with 13 points, and 16 rebounds playing the game’s entire 40 minutes. Williams took four charges, including one two seconds before half inflicting the third foul on Tennessee guard Kennedy Chandler, just two points in a limited second half after a team-leading nine points in the first half that Arkansas led just 24-23 at intermission.
“These are the games I like,” Williams said. “I like playing physical games.”
Saturday’s success advances Arkansas to 21-6 overall and at 10-4 in the SEC now tied for third with Tennessee, 19-7, 10-4 in the league, just one game behind second-place Kentucky, 11-3, and now only two games behind SEC first-place/ nationally No. 2 Auburn, 12-2 falling at Florida Saturday.
Florida at 6 p.m. (CST) Tuesday on ESPN2 in Gainesville, Fla. and Kentucky at 1 p.m. Saturday at Walton Arena mark Arkansas’ next two games before the Razorbacks close the SEC season hosting LSU on March 2 at Walton and rematched vs. Tennessee, March 5 in Knoxville, Tenn.
“We understand going to Florida, the way they played today in a win against Auburn is going to be a very, very difficult place,” Musselman said.
Musselman and the Hogs wish they could transport Saturday’s Walton to Florida’s O’Connell Center in Gainesville.
“It just wants to make us go harder for our family,” Williams said of the Walton full houses calling the Hogs through the Feb. 8 victory over then No. 1 Auburn and again Saturday over Tennessee. “Our family is everyone in the stands - people that sit outside hours before the game starts. It just makes us want to play harder and win the game for them.”
The Hogs needed every edge with their shots not falling and Tennessee in their faces and Arkansas guard JD Notae and SEC’s No. 2 scorer, mired in foul trouble.
Notae, matching Williams’ team high 13 points, only totaled 24 minutes. Notae sat the first half’s final 8:50 with two fouls, sat a spell with his third foul at 10:27 of the second half and then fouled at 3:05 just seconds after reentering.
Off the bench guards Devo Davis, four rebounds and seven points, including a key corner three with 6:25 upping Arkansas from leading only 44-42 to what proved an insurmountable, 47-42, and Chris Lykes, 6 of 6 free throws with the desperate to catch up Vols fouling down the stretch, more than compensated for Notae’s absence.
Off guard Au’Diese Toney, 10 rebounds and eight points also proved an Arkansas asset.
Santiago Vescovi, Tennessee’s leading scorer coming into the game and though big on the boards with 11 rebounds, only scored seven points shooting 2 of 13 including but 1 of 9 threes.
“There was no separation when JD was out,” Musselman said of the Vols trying to gain ground with Arkansas’ top offensive threat benched. “‘We felt Devo (also two fouls troubled in the first half) would be a big factor in today’s game. Down the stretch Chris’ free throws became so vital going 6 for 6 for the game. And Jaylin Williams, he just keeps getting better and better. He was phenomenal. And even though Au’Diese shot 1 for 6 he rebounded with 10 rebounds and his defense was phenomenal.”
The free throw line, Arkansas shot 17 of 22 to Tennessee’s 12 of 18 with 5-9 leading Tennessee scoring guard Zakai Zeigler 6 of 6 for half of his 12 points, and turnovers proved pivotal for Arkansas as did the Hogs holding their own on the boards only outrebounded, 46-43.
Though mostly thwarted shooting from the field, Arkansas thwarted Tennessee’s turnover hungry defense. Arkansas committed 10 turnovers to Tennessee’s 15 and capitalized to outscore the Vols, 13-2 on miscues.
“Their guards are some of the best guards in the league for stealing the ball and pressuring the ball,” Williams said. “They average forcing 17 turnovers and we only had 10. So that was one of the things we came into the game focusing on.”
That stat “amazed” Musselman.
“ I felt if we could just stay even with them off points off turnovers, that would be a huge plus for us,” Musselman said.