The Vols saw their modest two-game win streak come to an end as they fell to 11-9 overall and 3-5 in the league. Tennessee remains winless on the road at 0-6.
Arkansas (13-8, 4-4 SEC) was led by B.J. Young, who tallied 25 off the bench. Forward Marshawn Powell added 12 before fouling out late. The Hogs outscored the Vols 12-0 in fastbreak points and turned ball over just eight times, compared to 20 turnovers for UT.
"We just have to get more confident and more aggressive attacking the press," Tennessee senior forward Kenny Hall said. "We'll allow teams to either speed us up or make us turn the ball over. We're too worried about turning the ball over sometimes and too worried about what we're going to hear if we do turn it over."
Hall had his best game in SEC play with 14 points and five boards. Josh Richardson chipped in with 11 points and nine boards. Freshman Derek Reese snagged a career-high eight rebounds.
Jarnell Stokes led the Vols with 18 points and 10 rebounds, his third double-double in a row.
Tennessee trailed for the final 27 minutes of the game, but made a late-game push which came up short.
Skylar McBee's 3-pointer with 3:12 left brought the Vols within nine at 65-56. The Vols' defense them forced a shot-clock violation and Jordan McRae made a free throw with 2:25 left for an eight-point deficit. Another stop led to a free throw by Stokes with 1:47 left, making it 65-58.
Young's jumper with 1:15 left was a dagger. He added a pair of free throws to regain the double-figure lead at 69-58 with 59.7 seconds left.
Up by 10 at the half, Arkansas scored the first six points of the second half to build a 16-point lead at 41-25 with 2:25 gone by in the half. The Vols cut the deficit to single-digits midway through the second half. After a Hall jumper made it 49-40 with 10:16 left, Arkansas responded with five of the next six points to increase its lead to 54-41.
Young, normally a starter, came off the bench for Arkansas and tallied 12 points in the first half to lead the Razorbacks to a 35-25 edge at intermission. The Hogs outscored the Vols 24-2 on bench points in the first half. Richardson led the Vols with nine points in the first half.
“I have got to give it to our effort on defense," Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said. "We had Tennessee on their heels. BJ (Young) and Hunter were the most focused they have been in a while.”
The Vols continued to battle, but Arkansas answered each time Tennessee got within three possessions. A Hall free throw brought the Vols within eight at 54-46 with 7:13 left. A Stokes dunk then cut it to 60-51. But each time Arkansas came back on the other end to regain a double-figure advantage.
The teams traded the lead 12 times in the first 13 minutes of the game with neither team holding the edge by more than three points during that span. A 3-pointer by Young with 6:08 left in the first half put Arkansas ahead 22-18. A 3-point play by Young with 4:33 left extended the lead to 27-20. A 9-0 run by the Hogs increased the lead to 11 at 31-20.
The Vols went more than five minutes without a field goal before Richardson canned a jumper with 2:10 left in the half.
Vols point guard Trae Golden missed the game with a hamstring injury. He had played 60 games in a row previously. It was the first game he missed since Feb. 19, 2011, vs. Georgia in his freshman season.
The return home to face Georgia (10-11, 4-4 SEC) on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. That game will air on the SEC Network and can be heard on the Vol Network.