KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Arkansas kept Tennessee star Chris Lofton in check, but it couldn’t keep up with the Vols ’ Smiths — especially JaJuan.

JaJuan Smith, a senior guard, scored a career-high 32 points to lead No. 4 Tennessee to a 93-71 victory over the Razorbacks on Wednesday night at Thompson-Boling Arena before 20, 008 fans.

“I’m very pleased to report that JaJuan Smith has recovered from the flu in a big way, ’’ Vols Coach Bruce Pearl said. “ JaJuan was obviously feeling it.”

JaJuan Smith hit 9 of 13 from the field, including 6 of 6 on threepointers. Sophomore forward Tyler Smith added 15 points for the Vols and Ramar Smith, a sophomore guard, had six.

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Lofton had averaged 24. 3 points in three previous games against the Razorbacks but was held to six Wednesday night, when he was hounded defensively by several Razorbacks.

Over the previous six games Lofton had averaged five threepoint baskets and become the SEC’s career leader with 392, but he was 0 of 3 against the Razorbacks, failing to hit a three-pointer for the first time since a seasonopening victory over Temple.

“You can’t just stop Lofton,” said Arkansas senior forward Sonny Weems, who had 20 points. “They’ve got a lot of great players.

“ If you shut him down, you’ve got to worry about the other players on the team, and we didn’t do a good job of that. You’ve got to stop their whole team.”

Tennessee (22-2, 9-1 SEC ) also got solid games from sophomore forwards Duke Chism (15 points ) and Duke Crews (11 points, 11 rebounds ).

“It’s tough to play them, and you can’t do it for 20 or 30 minutes,” Arkansas senior guard Gary Ervin said. “You have to do it for all 40.”

JaJuan Smith had just two points in Tennessee’s 47-45 victory at LSU last Saturday when he was ill, though he scored the game-winning basket with a steal and layup.

“I definitely was hurting,” Smith said. “But I’m feeling a lot better now.”

Early in the game it became apparent Arkansas was going to make it tough on Lofton to get any good looks.

“Chris came and whispered in my ear, ‘They’re over there on me, so you step up,’” Smith said. “I had his back.”

Smith scored eight of Tennessee’s first 16 points and set a school record by hitting all six of his three-point attempts, breaking the mark of C. J. Watson, who was 5 of 5 against Campbell on Dec. 23, 2004.

“He can shoot it really well, and when you knock down the first two or three like he did, the basket gets really big,” Ervin said. “He stayed with that confidence to keep knocking down tough ones.”

Razorbacks Coach John Pelphrey said he was feeling “optimistic” at halftime when Tennessee led 43-38, despite Arkansas sophomore guard Patrick Beverley playing just four minutes because of foul trouble.

“I was kind of excited about having a chance in the second half,” Pelphrey said.

Then the Vols opened the half with an 11-1 run, including a pair of three-point baskets by JaJuan Smith and five points by Tyler Smith, to take a 54-39 lead with 17: 30 left.

“It was kind of all downhill from there for us,” Pelphrey said.

Arkansas (17-6, 6-3 SEC ) didn’t pull closer than 10 points the rest of the game and trailed by as many as 27 at 88-61 with 4: 40 left.

“They’re a great team and we didn’t come out with the defensive intensity we should have,” Weems said. “We let them run away from us. We didn’t come with that fire.”

The Vols were plenty fiery, including two steals by Tyler Smith.

“We preached it in the locker room at halftime that we hadn’t closed out games,” JaJuan Smith said. “This is really the first one we closed out. ’’

Beverley played 19 minutes in the second half but never got untracked and finished with five points and one rebound after coming into the game averaging an SEC-leading 11 rebounds in conference play.

The Razorbacks hit just two of their first 17 field-goal attempts in the second half when Tennessee took control of the game and finished at 39 percent from the field (23 of 59 ) for the game.

“ We didn’t run our offense very well,” Pelphrey said. “Give Tennessee credit for that.”

Tennessee won its 29 th consecutive home game and improved to 42-2 at Thompson-Boling Arena in Pearl’s three seasons as coach.

Arkansas, which won at Tennessee 73-68 in 2006, had been the only SEC opponent a Pearlcoached team hadn’t beaten at home.

Kentucky handed Tennessee its only other home loss under Pearl, also in 2006.

The 22-point loss Wednesday night was Arkansas’ most-lopsided this season, but Pelphrey sounded more impressed by the Vols than disappointed with the Razorbacks.

“They’re an outstanding team and play hard on both ends of the floor,” Pelphrey said. “I just don’t think we were able to play well enough tonight to really challenge them.”