Two of the hottest teams in the Southeastern Conference will be matched up Saturday when No. 23 Arkansas plays hosts to No. 16 Tennessee at Fayetteville, Ark.
Tennessee (19-6, 10-3 SEC) will take a five-game winning streak into the clash while the Arkansas (20-6, 9-4) has won 10 of its last 11 outings, including an overtime victory over conference-leader Auburn that snapped the Tigers’ win streak at 19 games.
Tennessee sits third in the conference standings, and the Razorbacks are looming close behind in fourth place. Both teams would earn a pass to the quarterfinals of the conference tournament if they hold onto those spots over the final two weeks of the regular season.
Each team also is coming off impressive outings earlier this week. The Vols avenged an earlier 28-point loss at Kentucky with a 76-63 thumping of the Wildcats at Knoxville. The Razorbacks cruised past Missouri 76-57 in a bounce-back victory following a heartbreaking 68-67 loss Saturday at Alabama.
“We talked about where we couldn’t have a hangover loss,” Arkansas coach Eric Musselman said.
Arkansas had five double-digit scorers against Missouri and never saw its lead drop under double digits after going up 15-4 early in the game. Stanley Umude scored a team-high 23 for Arkansas and has at least 19 points in three of his last five games, including a career high 31 against Georgia on Feb. 2.
“Stanley’s a scorer,” Arkansas forward Trey Wade said. “We rely on him. If he can keep that going, it’s a great help to our team. It helps us win so I look forward to having him doing that every game.”
Tennessee had four players in double figures against Kentucky with Santiago Vescovi leading with 18 points and Kennedy Chandler adding 17. Also key was the contribution of freshman Jonas Aidoo, who was limited by illness early in the season. Aidoo stepped in for injured Olivier Nkamhoua and played a season-high 18 minutes with five points and seven rebounds against the Wildcats.
Aidoo blocked three shots, including two against Kentucky player-of-the-year candidate Oscar Tshiebwe. His tip-in with 11:10 remaining started a 10-0 scoring run that gave the Vols a 65-45 lead with 6:27 remaining on the clock.
“He has earned his chance to be out there,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. “Early in the year, as you guys know, he missed a lot of the preseason. But in the last two-and-a-half weeks, maybe three, you can feel it starting to click a little bit for him.”
Aidoo had played a total of 31minutes in eight previous appearances.
“He had a lot of blocks and defended very well,” Chandler said. “He was on the boards a lot. That’s the minutes that we need from him.”
Saturday’s game will be the first of two scheduled meetings between the two teams with the second March 5 at Knoxville, Tenn., in the regular-season finale.
–Field Level Media
