In the Lane

Kouassi replaces Kingsley

Moses Kingsley of Arkansas makes a basket over Admiral Schofield of Tennessee on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016, during the game in Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas senior Willy Kouassi made his first start of the season at center in place of Moses Kingsley in the Razorbacks' 85-67 victory over Tennessee on Saturday.

Kouassi, the featured player on the game day scorecard, wound up with 4 rebounds and 2 points in 9 minutes.

Kingsley drew a technical foul in the Hogs' previous game at Florida after an opponent was called for fouling him, and Coach Mike Anderson said Thursday he would make sure it didn't happen again. The move left point guard Jabril Durham as the only Razorback to start all 23 games.

Kouassi provided two rebounds and tipped in a missed shot by Dusty Hannahs during his first shift.

Kingsley extended his streak of scoring 10 or more points to all 23 games by tallying 11 in the first half. The 6-10 junior finished with 17 points on 8-for-11 shooting and 5 rebounds.

Smoky suite

A fire in a University of Arkansas suite normally used by Coach Mike Anderson's guests at Walton Arena left a distinctive smell of smoke in Walton Arena about 90 minutes prior to tipoff.

Officials with knowledge of the incident said during a pregame tea party in the suite a sterno burner was knocked over and set fire to a table. Marcheita Anderson, the coach's wife, was reportedly not in the suite at the time.

The incident led to the activation of sprinklers, which created water issues on the East concourse. Game officials steered fans clear of that area of the concourse and from a section of the lower bowl for a while prior to tipoff. The incident did not cause a delay to the game.

Errant Punter

Tennessee's Kevin Punter, the nation's No. 8 scorer with 23.1 points per game, went 0 of 7 in the first half and finally connected on his first bucket at the 18:30 mark of the second half. The 6-2 senior guard finished with 24 points on 7 of 18 shooting, including 4 of 9 from three-point range with a bank shot included.

Black history

The Razorbacks wore T-shirts commemorating Black History Month for warm-ups, and the celebration will be repeated on campus in the coming days. Black History month will be recognized at Monday's women's basketball game between the Razorbacks and Vanderbilt. The Tyson Invitational at the Randal Tyson Track Center on Friday also will feature a nod to the initiative.

Whitt goes deep

Freshman Jimmy Whitt, who had been 1 of 5 this season from three-point range, went 2 of 2 against the Vols. Whitt sank one from beyond the arc from the left wing with 11:50 to play in the first half to put the Hogs ahead 19-7, then nestled one in from the top of the circle at the 10:40 mark of the second half for a 57-42 lead.

Five Razorbacks combined to make 9 of 22 three-pointers.

Board battle

Both teams worked over the offensive glass. Tennessee had 16 of its 33 total rebounds on the offensive boards, while Arkansas had 15 of its 40 rebounds on offense.

Line play

The Razorbacks missed their first four free throws and were 1 of 8 at one point in the first half. Arkansas wound up 16 of 25 (64 percent) for the game by making 12 of its last 13.

Tennessee, the SEC's leading free-throw team at 75 percent, fell short of that, making 11 of 17 (68.8 percent) from the line.

Bell ringing

Senior guard Anthlon Bell made 2 of 4 three-pointers. The top three-point shooter in the SEC at 53.4 percent heading into the game, Bell has made 50 percent or better on his three-point shots in six of 10 SEC games.

Tip-ins

• Point guard Jabril Durham notched his second blocked shot of the season when he stuffed Detrick Mostella in the second half.

• Arkansas cut its deficit in the series against Tennessee to 19-17 with the victory, the Razorbacks third in four games over the Volunteers.

• Coach Mike Anderson laid into guard Anton Beard as the first half ended after the sophomore fired up a three-pointer with about 18 seconds left in the half with the shot clock off. Beard's missed three-pointer allowed Tennessee to take the last shot of the half, although Detrick Mostella missed a three-pointer at the buzzer to drop the Vols to 8 of 33 (24.2 percent) for the half.

• Beard laid on the court for a few moments midway through the first half after diving for a loose ball and running head-first into the body of a Tennessee player who was coming from the other direction. Trainer Dave England attended to Beard, who got to his feet to applause.

• Former Arkansas Coach John Pelphrey served as an analyst for the SEC Network for the third time at a Razorback game. Pelphrey had previously worked the Hogs' 82-68 victory over Mississippi State at Walton Arena and their 94-61 triumph at Missouri three days later. The Hogs are 3-0 with Pelphrey on the mike.

Sports on 02/07/2016