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Tennessee knocks off No. 19 Arkansas

Jan 14, 2015 - 4:36 AM Knoxville, TN (SportsNetwork.com) - Josh Richardson scored 20 points and Tennessee knocked off No. 19 Arkansas 74-69 on Tuesday night after surviving a late rally by the Razorbacks.

Arkansas found a hot hand, trimming a 16-point deficit in the second half to one with 13.9 seconds left on Anton Beard's 3-pointer, which came after Devon Baulkman missed two foul shots at the other end.

Kevin Punter made his free throws for a three-point Volunteers lead, then inexplicably fouled Beard on a long 3-point try with 5.1 seconds remaining. But Beard missed the first two foul shots, then the third one on purpose and Tennessee grabbed the rebound to hold on.

Robert Hubbs III added 16 points and Armani Moore scored 14 for the Volunteers (10-5, 2-1 SEC), who have multiple wins over ranked teams for the ninth time in 10 seasons.

The Vols beat then-No. 15 Butler in Knoxville on Dec. 14, but coach Donnie Tyndall thinks Arkansas is one of the best teams they've played this season.

"Maybe slightly behind Kansas," he said. "They played extremely hard. They have no quit in them. They battled for 40 minutes. I thought our guys really competed. They were aggressive at the offensive end. We didn't settle for jump shots tonight."

SEC scoring leader Bobby Portis paced Arkansas with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Michael Qualls added 15 points and Beard scored 12 for the Razorbacks (13-3, 2-1), who had a seven-game winning streak snapped.

They were trying to go 3-0 in conference play for the first time since the 1997-98 season, but never held a lead after going up 4-2 in the opening minute of the game.

"They played an outstanding game," said Arkansas coach Mike Anderson. "They did some of the things we normally do to people and that's turn them over. That was a big statistic in the game, they turned us over and turned those turnovers into points.

"I'm very disappointed in our guys for not taking care of the ball, but I was proud we didn't just wilt. We had a chance, we were down 13 points and could have just folded the tent."

Tennessee led by as many as nine in the first half and had a 33-31 advantage at the break behind Richardson's 10 points. Their largest lead was 16 points with 10 minutes remaining.

Arkansas' surge over the final four minutes included an 8-0 run that trimmed the deficit to five with 1:31 remaining.

Game Notes

Tennessee, which leads the all-time series 19-14, snapped a four-game losing streak in Knoxville ... Arkansas hosts Ole Miss on Saturday ... Tennessee plays at Missouri on Saturday.