'Resilient' UT Vols bounce back, hold off No. 19 Arkansas 74-69

Tennessee's Derek Reese dunks against Arkansas in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015, in Knoxville.
Tennessee's Derek Reese dunks against Arkansas in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015, in Knoxville.
photo Tennessee's Derek Reese dunks against Arkansas in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015, in Knoxville.

KNOXVILLE -- What a difference three days made for the Tennessee basketball Volunteers.

And how dangerously close they came to throwing it all away.

Coming off a game in which it scored a Thompson-Boling Arena-record low 38 points in a bitterly disappointing loss to Alabama on Saturday, Tennessee roared out to a 16-point second-half lead and nearly gave it all back to 19th-ranked Arkansas before surviving a furious late rally and winning 74-69 Tuesday night.

"I think it's great for us because we have such a young team, and they've never really been through this before," senior guard Josh Richardson said after scoring 20 points to lead Tennessee to its second win against a top-20 team this season.

"I think it was great to see how resilient they were and how fast we turned around and played so well."

Tennessee (10-5, 2-1 SEC) was firmly in control for the first 35 minutes of the game against the more talented, more athletic Razorbacks, who had a seven-game winning streak snapped.

It almost all came apart, though.

The Vols had to make 11 of 14 free throws -- after missing nine of their first 12 -- in the final 68 seconds, but even those nearly weren't enough.

After Kevin Punter hit two free throws to make it 72-69 with 8.8 seconds left, Tennessee coach Donnie Tyndall called for his team to foul to prevent a tying 3-point attempt. Punter was late giving the foul and grabbed Arkansas guard Anton Beard as he went up to take a deep 3. The officials ruled it a shooting foul, and Beard went to the line with 5.1 seconds left.

"That's on me," Tyndall said. "I should've had them foul before (Arkansas crossed) halfcourt. We had a foul to give."

Beard clanked all three, and the Vols held on.

Losing would have been a cruel blow to Tennessee, which led for more than 37 minutes.

"We had the right mentality," Tyndall said. "We bounced back. We weren't feeling sorry for ourselves, and win or lose that game, I feel like our guys had the right approach, which was nice progress for such a young team."

"I'll be honest," he added, "I was a little bit worried that maybe the fans wouldn't come back and we'd have a disappointing crowd, and that was not the case. We had a great crowd, and they were absolutely amazing. That helps a young team get over the hump, and that was certainly the case tonight."

Tennessee jumped out to a 16-7 lead and led 33-31 at halftime before beginning the second half with a 10-2 run.

Back-to-back 3s from freshman Detrick Mostella pushed the Vols' lead to 53-38 with 12 minutes left.

This after Tennessee scored 14 points, shot 5-of-24 and endured a 13-minute scoreless spell in Saturday's second half.

"Personally, I honestly forgot about the last game," said Vols forward Armani Moore, who scored 14 points Tuesday. "It's something that I moved on from. It's not about that; it's all about competing. Every time we step on the court, we're just going to try to compete with our opponent."

Tennessee scored 27 points off 18 Arkansas turnovers, netted 40 points in the paint and outrebounded the visitors 33-32.

"We have quality character young guys, and I think they were as disappointed as I was the way we played the last 12 minutes against Alabama," Tyndall said. "Whether we could win the game or not, who knew. But they were going to play the right way, and I thought they did that."

The Razorbacks (13-3, 2-1) led the SEC in scoring (83.9 points per game) and featured the league's top scorer in 6-foot-11 forward Bobby Portis, who averaged 18 points per game, but they went seven minutes without scoring in the second half.

Portis had 17 points and 11 rebounds and high-flying guard Michael Qualls added 15 points, but it wasn't enough to keep Tennessee, which beat then-No. 15 Butler in December, from notching an overachieving win.

"Knowing that we can play with anybody," Richardson said, "we should have a lot of confidence going into every game."

"Based on the way that we play, we can rattle a lot of opponents because we play so scrappy," Moore said. "If you can't really make a whole lot of outside shots, it's really, really hard to beat us.

"It's not necessarily about doubting what we can do as a team, but if we go out each and every night and play like what we know we can play like, then I feel like yes, we can do some very good things this year."

Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.

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