As dark clouds began to settle in over the Knoxville skyline, junior guard Lamonte Turner cleared the darkness that had been hovering over his head for weeks.
After dealing with the repercussions of an offseason shoulder surgery, Tennessee’s reigning SEC co-Sixth Man of the Year was back to doing what he does best. Jordan Bowden joined Turner in delivering a solid one-two punch off the bench.
Turner scored 21 points, Bowden added 19 and Grant Williams tacked on 18 points and seven rebounds as Tennessee gashed Arkansas, 106-87.
The win marks the eleventh in a row for the Vols as they continue to find their groove on both sides of the ball, finishing with five players in double figures.
Head coach Rick Barnes was far from satisfied, however, with his team’s performance in the second half.
“You’ve got to give Arkansas credit, I told the guys at half time they wouldn’t stop playing,” Barnes said. “They came out and won the second half.”
Despite having gone 1-6 against the Razorbacks in their last seven meetings, Tennessee was able to jump on its opponent from the opening tip.
It wasn’t until Bowden and Turner checked in that they started to inflict serious damage. Not only did they spur a 19-4 run over the waning minutes of the opening half, but they did it efficiently.
In the first half alone, Bowden and Turner combined to miss just one shot in eight attempts. With Schofield struggling with foul trouble early, it was exactly the spark Tennessee needed.
It’s that consistency of late that has elevated Bowden’s level of confidence as the Vols tread slowly towards the postseason.
“I think this is the most consistent I’ve been on both ends of the floor,” Bowden said. “I’m just going to keep putting reps in and try to execute on both ends of the floor.”
Long-known as capable shooters, both are coming off of seasons in which they shot identical percentages from beyond the arc (.395) and made 91 total threes combined.
They were 5 of 5 from three-point range in the opening half, and their hot streak would only continue following the intermission. Bowden, who came in to Tuesday averaging 19.0 points in SEC play, kicked the second half off with back-to-back triples as the Vols continued to surge further and further ahead of the Razorbacks.
An early candidate for SEC Sixth Man of the Year, he was equaled only by his counterpart who took home a share of the award last season.
“We just wanted to bring some energy into the game and that’s what we did tonight,” Turner said. “We weren’t really trying to score, we were just put in a position to do that and we had it going.”
As a unit, Tennessee’s bench produced 50 points, and 80 percent of those were courtesy of the tandem of junior guards.
While it was senior guard Admiral Schofield that set the tone in the second half, Bowden and Turner were ultimately responsible for the Vols’ insurmountable lead, notching over half of their points during the opening 20 minutes.
That proved to be all Tennessee needed as they coasted to an 18th consecutive home victory.
Despite his team’s closing effort leaving a bitter taste in his mouth, Barnes was able to find positives in his bench duo’s effort.
“They both played really good and had a great demeanor about themselves,” Barnes said. “Those two guys were really trying to work.”
Tennessee hosts Alabama on Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena.
