ST. LOUIS - When Jordan Bone pulled up and hit a jump shot eight seconds into Tennessee's Southeastern Conference tournament semifinal against Arkansas on Saturday, it seemed like business as usual.
The mercurial sophomore has started games with a vengeance several times this season before deferring to teammates Lamonte Turner, Admiral Schofield and Grant Williams to handle the offensive workload.
This time, Bone left himself no choice. He had to keep shooting. He couldn't miss.
Bone scored 17 of his game-high 19 points on 7-of-7 shooting in the first half as the second-seeded Volunteers rolled into Sunday's SEC title game with an 84-66 victory over the sixth-seeded Razorbacks at Scottrade Center.
"Jordan Bone was terrific," Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said, "and the team actually feeds a lot off him when he's out there playing with the speed and quickness he has."
The second half came with its share of tense moments for the Vols - Arkansas began the period on a 13-5 run - but a 48-29 halftime deficit was simply too much for the Razorbacks to overcome. With just more than a minute remaining, a chant of, "It's great to be a Tennessee Vol!" broke out inside the arena nearly 500 miles away from Knoxville that was filled with some orange and red but mostly Kentucky blue.
Fourth-seeded Kentucky (23-10) won 86-63 against ninth-seeded Alabama (19-15) in Saturday's first semifinal, meaning Tennessee - which shared the SEC regular-season title with Auburn - will have to defeat the Wildcats for a third time this season to clinch its first conference tournament title since 1979. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. Eastern.
Coincidentally, the Vols beat Kentucky in the championship that year for their third win of the season over the Wildcats.
"It means a lot," Tennessee guard Lamonte Turner said. "This season, going back to the start of it, we've been talking about things we want to do as a team. Everything is still out there in front of us, and an SEC tournament championship is one of them, so it's right here in front of us, and we just have to take advantage of it."
Turner has made a habit of playing his best basketball in key moments this season. He hit clutch shots again Saturday, scoring all nine of his points on a trio of 3-pointers in the second half as Arkansas tried to stage a comeback. The Razorbacks never got closer than 11 points in the second half.
Four players scored in double figures for Arkansas: Daryl Macon (19 points), Jaylen Barford (14), Anton Beard (11) and Darious Hall (11).
Tennessee had lost five straight to the Razorbacks, including a 95-93 overtime game on Dec. 30 in Fayetteville, where the hosts stormed back late in regulation. That was the SEC regular-season opener for Tennessee, which fell to 0-2 in league play a few days later by losing to Auburn. Since then, Tennessee has 16 wins in 19 games.
Saturday's performance - especially the first half in which the Vols shot a season-best 76 percent - signaled a return to potency for an offense that posted its second-worst shooting percentage of the year in Friday night's 62-59 quarterfinal win over Mississippi State.
Both Bone and reserve guard James Daniel reached double digits in points in the first half against Arkansas after neither had scored in double figures in a game since Jan. 31. Daniel and Bone were a combined 10-of-10 in the first half.
"We hadn't played in a week, so I knew we would be out there a little rusty," Daniel said, reflecting on what changed between Friday and Saturday for the Vols. "Also, shooting in this arena is a little different, so just getting your depth perception - I kind of thought we would shoot better today."
Daniel finished with 12 points, Kyle Alexander had 12 and Grant Williams had 12 for the Vols. Admiral Schofield scored 16. No one played more than 30 minutes for Tennessee as Barnes tried to spread minutes around with his team now set for its third game in three days.
Several players were icing knees, ankles or shoulders in the locker room after the game as they sipped smoothies loaded with ingredients meant to aid their physical recovery. The NCAA tournament awaits next week, but there's a chance for another championship first.
"It's championship season, and we set out to be in this position from the start of the season and we're here," Schofield said. "Every chance we get to compete for a championship, we're going to go out and compete for it. We did it in the regular season, but that doesn't matter. Beating them twice in the regular season doesn't matter."
CBS and ESPN both projected Tennessee to be a No. 3 seed opening the NCAA tournament in Nashville in mock brackets released Saturday morning. The Vols will learn their destination Sundaywhen the field of 68 teams is revealed at 6 p.m. on TBS.
Winning the SEC tournament could lead the selection committee to consider making the Vols a No. 2 seed.
It would also give the team picked in the preseason to finish 13th in the SEC another trophy to hoist from a league expected to have eight teams invited to the Big Dance
"I wouldn't say we're trying to prove anything," Schofield said. "We just have a standard we're trying to play towards. The biggest thing is we try to go out to every game with that mindset, like we're trying to perfect our standard. We haven't done that yet, so we're still a hungry team.
"We still want more."
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.