KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee men’s basketball took down No. 23/RV Arkansas, 76-52, Saturday afternoon in front of a sold-out crowd at Food City Center in its first game of league play.
Top-ranked Tennessee (14-0, 1-0 SEC) matched the best start in program history, set 102 years ago in 1922-23, with the dominant triumph in which it led by as many as 27 and trailed for just 3:09. Fifth-year guard Chaz Lanier led all scorers with a season-high 29 points, his third straight showing with 20-plus, for the victors.
The Volunteers scored 12 straight points in 5:24, including a 10-0 burst in the first 2:48, to take a 21-12 edge at the 8:38 mark of the opening half. They held Arkansas (11-3, 0-1 SEC) without a point for 6:11.
Tennessee extended the run to 14-1 in 6:25, going ahead by 10, 23-13, with 7:38 on the timer. It held the Razorbacks without a field goal for 7:06, inducing nine consecutive misses, as well as got 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting from Lanier in that opening 12-plus minutes.
Arkansas closed within seven, but senior guard Zakai Zeigler scored eight points in a minute to spark a 15-5 burst that put the home team ahead by 17, 40-23, with 2:17 left after five straight makes from the floor. It retained a 15-point margin, 42-27, at the break.
The Volunteers posted a commanding 27-12 advantage on the glass in the opening half, including a 14-3 tally on the offensive end that led to a 7-0 cushion in second-chance points. They also conceded just six makes on the Razorbacks’ final 18 field goals of the half after they made their first four through six minutes.
Lanier connected on back-to-back 3-pointers early in the second frame to give Tennessee a then-game-best 19-point lead, 48-29, with 16:57 remaining. Arkansas responded with seven of the next eight points to make it 49-36 with 14:10 to go, but never got the deficit under a baker’s dozen.
The Volunteers regained full control by stretching the margin up to 18, 58-40, with 9:23 to play and continued to cruise from there. They scored nine straight points in 2:27 late in the frame to make it a 25-point cushion, 72-47, with 2:47 on the clock and eventually went up by a game-high 27, 76-49, with 57 ticks left. Arkansas scored the last basket to make it a 24-point final ledger.
Lanier, who posted the top point total by a Volunteer this season, shot 10-of-20 from the floor, tying a season high in makes, including 5-of-9 beyond the arc. The Nashville, Tenn., native also made all four of his free throws.
Senior forward Igor Miličić Jr., tallied 13 points and a career-best 18 rebounds, the latter good for the highest total by a Tennessee player in nearly 11 years, since March 23, 2014. He added a career-high-tying five assists, one steal, one block and a 2-of-5 long-range clip in a season-high 36 minutes of action. The Rovinj, Croatia, native is the fifth SEC player—sixth occurrence—in the last 20 seasons (2005-25) to notch at least 13 points, 18 rebounds and five assists in a contest, including the only one to do so in league play.
Zeigler finished with 12 points, a game-best seven assists, five rebounds and a co-game-high three steals. Junior forward Felix Okpara added 10 points for the Volunteers.
Sophomore guard D.J. Wagner paced Arkansas with 17 points, seven of which came on a 3-of-3 clip in the first three minutes. Freshman guard Boogie Fland added 12 points in the setback, while no other Razorback reached even seven in the scoring column. The Volunteers limited junior forward Adou Thiero, who entered the weekend averaging a team-best 17.8 points per game, to just six points on 3-of-7 shooting.
In total, Tennessee held Arkansas to a 37.7 percent (20-of-53) ledger from the floor, including a 32.7 percent (16-of-49) mark over the final 36 minutes. The Volunteers shot 80.0 percent (12-of-15) at the stripe, while the visitors logged just a 46.2 percent (6-of-13) figure.
The 52 points for the Razorbacks marked their lowest total in nearly a year, dating to a 51-point showing Jan. 24, 2024, at Ole Miss. It marked just the third time in the last six seasons (2019-25) Arkansas has been limited to 52 or fewer points.
Each of the Razorbacks’ last two losses by 20-plus points are to Tennessee, which logged a 92-63 in the last meeting, Feb. 14, 2024, in Fayetteville, Ark. The last two wins by the Volunteers, by 29 and now 24, are also the two largest margins of victory by either side in series history.
Tennessee, which led by double digits for the final 25:08, ended the win with a plus-22 mark, 51-29, on the glass, including a 24-9 tally on the offensive side of the floor. The two-dozen offensive boards put the Volunteers just two shy of a top-five total in program history, while the 51 total rebounds marked the team’s most since Dec. 7, 2022.
The 24-point triumph is Tennessee’s seventh-largest ever over a ranked opponent. It is the second year in a row the head coach Rick Barnes‘ team opened SEC play by beating a top-25 team by at least two-dozen points.
Up next for the Volunteers is a visit to No. 6/5 Florida Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center in Gainesville, Fla., live on ESPN2. Listen on 103.1FM WIKQ at 6:30pm.
