FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — After a late surge by Arkansas, No. 19 Tennessee came up short in overtime, 95-93, at Bud Walton Arena on Saturday.
With a 68-61 edge in the final four minutes of the second half, the Razorbacks (11-2, 1-0 SEC) stormed back into the game behind a 12-2 run to take their first lead of the contest. Down by one with 18 seconds remaining, Tennessee’s Jordan Bone drew a foul and tied the game at 73-73 to force overtime.
Arkansas had all the momentum going into overtime and pulled away early on in the extra period with a 16-5 run. The Vols (9-3, 0-1 SEC) clawed back to make it a two-point game with eight seconds left behind back-to-back 3-pointers by Lamonte Turner, but it wasn’t enough. The teams combined to score 42 total points in the five-minute overtime period.
The Volunteers had five players with double-digit scoring, paced by Bone’s season-high 21 points. He also had six boards and five assists in 38 minutes of action. James Daniel III had a big game off the bench, scoring 17 to go with four assists and a pair of rebounds and steals.
Admiral Schofield finished with 16 points and seven rebounds, while Grant Williams and Turner chipped in 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Arkansas was paced by Daryl Macon, who finished with 33 points on 10-of-18 shooting from the field. Jaylen Barford added 28 points to help the Razorbacks shoot 54 percent (33-61) in the contest.
Despite several runs and tough shots by Arkansas, UT never lost the lead in the first half. After the Razorbacks tied things up at 26 with less than five minutes left, the Vols used a 12-2 run to help take a 38-31 advantage into intermission.
Daniel was huge off the bench for Tennessee in the frame, dropping 10 points on 3-of-3 shooting from the floor. Schofield had the hot hand out of the gate, knocking down three treys to spark UT’s scoring attack early on.
HIGH-SCORING OVERTIME: In the extra period, UT and Arkansas combined for 42 points, with both squads scoring at least 20. In comparison, the Vols and Purdue only scored 27 points between the two teams earlier in the season.
LIMITING ASSISTS, FORCING TURNOVERS: Entering Saturday’s matchup, the Razorbacks ranked seventh in the country with a 1.66 assist-to-turnover ratio. Tennessee forced 12 turnovers while holding them to only nine assists. UT also snapped Arkansas’s five-game streak with fewer than 10 turnovers, its longest such span in over 20 years.
UP NEXT: The Vols return home to host Auburn (Jan. 2) and Kentucky (Jan. 6) in back-to-back home games at Thompson-Boling Arena.
-UT Athletics
