KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Arkansas charged back from a 16-point deficit in the second half with a furious late rally, but Tennessee overcame shoddy free-throw shooting down the stretch to hold off the No. 19 Razorbacks 74-69 on Tuesday night.
Arkansas' Anton Beard was at the free-throw line for three shots with 5.1 seconds left and the Razorbacks trailing 72-69, but the freshman missed all three shots.
Arkansas (13-3, 2-1) was denied its first 3-0 SEC start since 1998 and lost a chance to win its first two SEC road games for the first time before a crowd of 13,366 at Thompson-Boling Arena.
Tennessee (10-5, 2-1) shot 31 percent in an offensive meltdown in last Saturday's 56-38 home loss to Alabama, but it connected on 50.9 percent (27 of 53) against the Razorbacks and beat them at their own turnover-forcing game, 18-14. The Volunteers outscored Arkansas 27-15 in points off turnovers as the Razorbacks struggled to find offensive consistency against Tennessee's full-court pressure and match-up zone.
"They were quicker to the ball," Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson said. "They played like they had nothing to lose and everything to gain.
"They did some of the things we normally do to people, that is turn them over. I thought that was a big statistic in the game. They turned us over and turned them into points. ... We go against the press every day in practice. That's why I was really surprised at the number of turnovers we had early on."
Thompson-Boling Arena has become a house of horrors for the Razorbacks, who are 2-11 in the facility with one victory in their past 10 games here.
"I thought we were aggressive and had the right mentality," Tennessee Coach Donnie Tyndall said. "We bounced back. We weren't feeling sorry for ourselves. Win or lose that game I feel like our guys had the right approach, which is nice progress for such a young team."
Tennessee guard Josh Richardson made 8 of 11 shots for a game-high 20 points and helped dictate the tempo with steady ball-handling against Arkansas' pressure. Robert Hubbs III added 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting for the Volunteers.
Bobby Portis scored 17 points on 8-of-14 shooting and had 11 rebounds. Michael Qualls added 15 points and Beard had a season-high 12 points.
"I felt as though our turnovers just killed us today," Portis said. "Their 2-2-1 press slowed us down at points in the game, and I just feel as though early on our guys didn't attack the zone. We just kind of passed it back and forth, just settled for long jumpers."
Tennessee held its largest lead at 54-38 with 10 minutes left and was ahead 63-50 under the four-minute mark.
The Volunteers were ahead 66-58 heading into the final minute, but 3 three-pointers from Beard and Anthlon Bell and Qualls' short jumper -- all in a span of 30 seconds -- gave the Razorbacks a chance.
Beard's three-pointer from the right wing with 15 seconds left pulled Arkansas to within 70-69. Tennessee missed five consecutive free throws as Arkansas was fighting back into contention and went 14 of 26 (53.8 percent) from the line overall.
"I thought for about 35 minutes we played to win and the last five minutes we played not to lose," Tyndall said. "You could just tell. We tightened up a little bit and missed some free throws. We turned it over. We became a little apprehensive."
Tennessee's Kevin Punter hit two free throws to make it 72-69 with 8.8 seconds remaining, but he fouled Beard at the other end from three-point range, with the call from referee Teddy Valentine eliciting massive booing from Vols fans.
Beard was 9 of 14 from the line this season, but he misfired on all three tries and Tennessee finished off the upset victory with two Armani Moore free throws.
Anderson said he told Beard after the game that his play helped the Razorbacks get back in position to win.
"He's going to learn from it," Anderson said.
Richardson and the Vols turned a handful of Arkansas turnovers into transition baskets, including his breakaway dunk early in the second half as Tennessee improved a 33-31 halftime lead into a 16-point advantage.
Richardson said the Vols prefer to play fast-paced teams like Arkansas.
"Especially a team that gets up and down as fast as they do, that kind of plays into what we want to do," Richardson said.
"I'm very disappointed in our guys not taking care of the basketball, but I was proud that we didn't just wilt," Anderson said. "We were down 13 points and there was a chance to just fold the tent, but our guys fought and fought and even had a chance to tie the game up."
Sports on 01/14/2015