Razorback senior guard Au'Diese Toney (#5) from Huntsville, AL drives the baseline against Tennessee during the Feb. 16th game
at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, AR.
Nate Allen
FAYETTEVILLE - Tennessee’s Volunteers scored more points on Arkansas in Saturday’s first half at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tenn. than the Vols scored the entire game Feb. 16 at Walton Arena.
The Vols’ 50-29 first half Saturday, that Tennessee once led by 24, almost didn’t suffice to cover the Razorbacks’ furious second half. But it did.
So off losing a 58-48 defensive struggle to Arkansas on Feb. 16 in Fayetteville, Coach Rick Barnes’ avenging Vols closed the regular SEC season hanging on 78-74.
Thirteenth Associated Press-ranked Tennessee finishes 23-7 overall and in a 14-4 SEC second place tie with Kentucky behind 15-3 SEC champion Auburn.
AP 14th-ranked Arkansas, 24-7, 13-5, finishes fourth entering the SEC Tournament running Wednesday through Sunday in Tampa, Fla.
The first four SEC teams automatically earn double byes into Friday’s SEC Tournament quarterfinals seeded against Thursday’s four victors.
Playing on Tennessee’s 21,678 full house homecourt, where the Vols finish 16-0, instead of Arkansas’ 20,000 Hog callers at Walton obviously cast an unfavorable first-half difference Saturday on Arkansas.
Of course, the Hogs factored that beforehand. They apparently didn’t, until shortly before tip-off, factor for the game absence of Arkansas 6-6 starting guard Au’Diese Toney. Toney’s previously publicly undisclosed ankle injury occurred late during last Wednesday night’s 77-76 win at Walton over LSU, Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman said on his postgame Zoom press conference.
Toney was in uniform but not used Saturday replaced by guard Devo Davis (four points, one rebound and no assists) starting the game.
“I thought he was going to be able to play five to seven minutes each half, and that was not the case,” Musselman said. “It was bothering him too much. We have to plan for Au’Diese not playing (in Friday’s SEC quarterfinal) which means we have to figure out what we want to do with the starting lineup. We know we’re not doing what we did tonight to start the game. I can guarantee you that.”
With Toney away, the Vols fired away hitting 9 of 12 first-half treys while Arkansas center Jaylin Williams sat the half’s final 9:37 with two fouls./ eading Arkansas scoring guard JD Notae hit only 2 of 7 first-half shots.
Kennedy Chandler, 4 of 4, Santiago Vescovi, 2 of 2, and Zakai Zeigler and Josiah-Jordan James, a combined 3 of 4, turned the first-half 3-point line into a sizzling Tennessee Orange.
“The first half not having Au’Diese at that guard spot really hurt us from a length standpoint,” Musselman said. “We didn’t defend the three at all in the first half. Reverted back, quite frankly, to the way we played defense the first 15 games defending the three. Their starting backcourt got a lot of really, clean easy looks.”
In the second half, the Hogs defensively adjusted to life without Toney. They held Tennessee to 24 second-half points without a field goal the game’s final six minutes and just three more threes for the game.
Arkansas was helped immensely by reserve forward Kamani Johnson’s eight rebounds and Williams’ six second half rebounds after just one for the first half.
Meanwhile Notae finished scoring a game-leading 20 points, and reserve guard Chris Lykes, 15 points with forward Stanley Umude also scoring 15, revived the Razorbacks offensively.
Seldom-used reserve guards Jaxson Robinson of Ada, Okla. and transferred from Texas A&M, and sophomore KK Robinson of Little Rock combined for five points.
“I thought that Jaylin Williams had a really good second half,” Musselman said. “I thought JD was better in the second half. I thought Chris Lykes played as good as he has in awhile. I thought Kamani did a great job on the glass. Jaxson in his limited minutes hit a three. KK played really hard. We outrebounded them (37-33 for the game after outrebounded 19-12 in the first half). We had 16 O-boards. We had too many turnovers (15) but they had two more turnovers. And they are a really, really high steals team. We had more steals (9-7) than them. So it was really about defending the three in the first half.”
Notae missed a contested 3-point bid at a 76-76 tie with nine seconds left. He wondered if his final attempt had contact beyond contesting.
“I definitely thought it could have been a foul, but they didn’t call it,” Notae said. “Just got to move on. We just kept fighting and kept fighting to give ourselves a chance. We gave ourselves a chance, came up short, but we fought.”
Following Notae’s miss, which followed Notae missing connections trying to hit Devo Davis on a fast break, the Hogs fouled Zeigler. Ziegler hit 1 of 2 free throws with seven seconds left for the clincher.
Arkansas only hitting 7 of 15 first half free throws to Tennessee’s 13 of 18 proved among the stats sealing Arkansas’ fate though the final free throw stats minimized to Arkansas’ 18 of 27 to Tennessee’s 20 of 30.
Four Vols scored double figures. Chandler and Vescovi scored 15 each. Zeigler, 13 and James, 12.
“They’re undefeated at home,” Musselman said. “So that alone tells you how good they are in this building. I’m really happy with how hard we played in the second half and the toughness that we had. But we came here to win, and we lost.”