Familiar mistakes slow No. 19 Tennessee Basketball in loss at No. 18 Arkansas

No. 19 Tennessee Basketball had a chance to steal a ranked win on the road to start SEC play Saturday afternoon at No. 18 Arkansas, but familiar trouble haunted and ultimately sunk the Vols.

Tennessee missed 12 of 23 free throws, committed 14 turnovers and watched as Arkansas took full advantage in an 86-75 win over the Vols at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville.

Freshman Amari Evans scored 16 points off the bench to lead Tennessee (10-4, 0-1 SEC) in the loss and Ja’Kobi Gillespie scored 14. Nate Ament had 13 points while going 5-for-11 at the foul line and JP Estrella had nine points and four rebounds in 11 minutes, including just five in the second half.

Jaylen Carey scored six points on 3-for-8 shooting and missed his only two free-throw attempts. Bishop Boswell, Felix Okpara and Evans all went 1-for-2 at the line.

Arkansas (11-3, 1-0) got 29 points from freshman Darius Acuff and Maleek Thomas added 18 more. Acuff and Karter Knox hit back-to-back threes to build the Razorback lead to 11 and deliver the exclamation point with two minutes left.

Arkansas, which went 29 of 33 at the foul line, scored 17 points off the 14 Tennessee turnovers and had 13 second-chance points while out-rebounding the Vols 36-33 overall and 12-11 on the offensive glass.

The Hogs took the lead for good and took control with a 12-0 run over three minutes, 50 seconds in the second half, while Tennessee went scoreless for over five minutes. Ament missed the front end of a 1-and-1 during the run.

Evans would hit a go-head 3-pointer with 11:06 to go, putting Tennessee up 58-55, but Arkansas answered with the 12 straight points to take a 67-58 lead. Gillespie finally hit a three with 5:29 left to get the Vols within five.

Tennessee built a five-point lead early in the second half, but the Vols couldn’t stretch the lead.

Tennessee’s lead was four with 15:26 left, but Arkansas got a four-point play on an Acuff three and Boswell foul, his third of the game. It was a three-point lead for the Vols when the Razorbacks got a three-point play with 14:25 to go, on Gillespie’s second foul.

His third foul led to another three-point Arkansas play, this one with 12:16 left and Tennessee leading by five.

Arkansas led 37-36 at halftime after seven lead changes in first half

Tennessee trailed 37-36 at halftime despite going 2-for-8 at the foul line, committing six turnovers and getting out-rebounded in the first half. 

The Vols jumped out to a 7-0 lead over the first two minutes, but Arkansas answered with an 11-2 run and would lead for just over 10 minutes before halftime. 

Estrella scored seven points in six minutes in the first half and Evans had six in nine minutes, with the two going a combined 6-for-6 from the field. Ament had three points in the first half and missed three of four free throws. Gillespie scored four points on 2-for-7 shooting from the field, including 0-for-3 from the 3-point line.

Thomas had 12 points and Acuff scored 10 in the first half for Arkansas. 

The lead changed seven times in the first half, including Tennessee rallying from a 27-20 deficit to take a 36-35 lead on a Estrella put back with 18 seconds left in the half.

Up Next: No. 19 Tennessee vs. Texas, Tuesday, 9 p.m. ET, ESPN2

Tennessee opens the home SEC schedule against Texas Tuesday in a 9 p.m. Eastern Time start on ESPN2 at Food City Center. 

The Vols and Longhorns have played five times over the last four seasons, including two postseason games. Tennessee won in the quarterfinal round of the SEC Tournament last season and in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2024.

The January SEC schedule is loaded for Tennessee, with the Vols going to No. 22 Florida next Saturday, to No. 14 Alabama on January 24 and to No. 23 Georgia on January 27. The Vols host Texas A&M on January 13, Kentucky on January 17 and Auburn on January 31.