WholeHogSports
Caught off guard : JaJuan Smith shoots Hogs’ lights out at Knoxville
Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2008
URL: http://www.wholehogsports.com/nwat/62235/
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Wary of one shooting guard, Arkansas was shot down by the other Wednesday night at Thompson-Boling Arena.
The Razorbacks kept Tennessee dead-eye Chris Lofton in their crosshairs but were blindsided by JaJuan Smith’s career-high 32 points. The senior hit on all six of his 3-point attempts to pace the No. 4 Volunteers’ 93-71 rout of the Razorbacks (17-6, 6-3 ), extending Tennessee’s home winning streak to 29 games and halting Arkansas ’ win streak at four games.
Sonny Weems tallied 15 of his 20 points during the first half to lead the Razorbacks. Darian Townes was the only other Hog in double figures, scoring 12 points. The 93 points was the most Arkansas has allowed all season.
Lofton came into the game averaging 24. 3 points against Arkansas, but Tuesday night the Razorbacks limited him to six points and an 0-of-3 showing from 3-point range. Not since the season opener had the SEC’s all-time leader in made 3-pointers gone without a 3-point hit.
“ That’s just one of their pieces, ” said Gary Ervin, Arkansas ’ senior point guard. “ Everybody knows [Lofton ] is the reigning SEC Player of the Year and he’s going get a lot of touches. At the same time, you have other teammates that can step up and do some of the things he does. It’s kind of tough to guard. ”
Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl said Arkansas arrayed its defense to stop Lofton, leaving room for JaJuan Smith and Tyler Smith to exploit. While the former Smith played on perimeter space, the latter Smith took advantage of Arkansas’ extended defense and scored most of his 15 points from inside the lane.
Big men Wayne Chism and Brian Williams also had room to maneuver inside, respectively scoring 15 and 11 points.
“ I think what happened is that JaJuan sort of recognized that they were almost playing a box-and-one on Chris, ” Pearl said. “ The guy guarding Chris was a foot off of him the whole night. He just stayed draped on him.
“ We should’ve done a few more things to try and make them play honest on Chris, but it didn’t matter because we’ve got enough weapons. If they’re going to do that, it just opens everyone else up. ”
Two quick fouls relegated Patrick Beverley to the bench for all but four minutes of the first half. When he wasn’t idled by foul trouble, the sophomore guard was tasked with shadowing Lofton — an assignment that limited the Razorbacks’ leading rebounder to a paltry one board.
“ They took their best rebounder and put him out there on Lofton, ” Pearl said. “ So now he’s out there chasing Chris and not rebounding. ”
“ He obviously didn’t have a very good game [five points in 23 minutes ], ” Arkansas coach John Pelphrey said of Beverley. “ He had foul trouble in the first half. The rest you have to give Tennessee credit for. ”
Pearl credited his team’s discipline early in the game, eschewing its trademark 3-point shot for drives to the basket. Tennessee’s first nine points came on layups and it made 27 of 37 free throws, as Arkansas was whistled for 27 fouls trying to repel Volunteer forays to the hoop.
“ We were trying to take the ball to the basket, ” Pearl said. “ We emphasized power moves this week in practice. ”
Tennessee (22-2, 9-1 ) threatened to run away from Arkansas when it built an 11-point lead with six minutes to play in the first half. The Razorbacks reeled in the Volunteers thanks to Weems ’ fade-away jumper and two 3-pointers, cutting the lead to five at intermission.
The Razorbacks couldn’t answer the next Tennessee flurry. They never recovered from a JaJuan Smith 3-pointer followed by a Tyler Smith steal and 3-point play during the first minute of the second half.
Beverley scored all five his points during a 1: 20 stretch to cut the lead to 10, but Arkansas was broke by the 14-0 Tennessee run that followed.
“ The thing is, even if the game is close, those guys have the ability to take a one- or two-possession game and stretch it out to three or four like that, ” Pelphrey said. “ There’s an explosiveness there that’s hard to keep up with.
“ It’s even more alarming when a guy goes 6 for 6, but those guys can do it. Give us a break here a little bit. Go for 6 for 10. You can’t say it’s luck, because they do it every night. ”