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FAYETTEVILLE – It took a pair of strong performances from its stars and a furious late-game rally, but Arkansas stayed perfect at home Saturday.

Daryl Macon and Jaylen Barford combined to score 61 points and made several key plays to lift the Razorbacks to a 95-93 win over No. 19 Tennessee in front of a sellout crowd of 18,696 fans. They are now 8-0 at Bud Walton Arena this season.

The victory should be enough to vault Arkansas (11-2) into the AP top 25 for the first time in three years, as it was at the top of the “receiving votes” section entering the week.

“Coach doesn’t want me to talk about that, but I have to say something,” Macon said. “I thought we should have been ranked a long time ago, but sometimes you have to show people.

“I have no problem with showing people. I came the JUCO route, so I have no problem showing whoever in this country.”

Tennessee (9-3) was in control for most of the game, even leading by as many as 10 points late in the first half.

Every time the Razorbacks tried to cut into that lead, they would shoot themselves in the foot and the Volunteers would make them pay for those mistakes.

For the first 38 minutes, Arkansas made just 2 of 11 shots and committed four turnovers when it was within three points or tied with Tennessee. On the flip side, the Volunteers shot 14 of 26 (53.8 percent) and had five offensive rebounds in those situations.

“I don’t think it was nerves,” Macon said. “I just think we were too giddy at the beginning of the game. We just had to settle down and remember that we just have to play ball.”

With its bench contributing a season-low five points, Arkansas had to rely on its starters – primarily senior guards Barford, Macon and Anton Beard – on offense.

However, with less than four minutes remaining, Tennessee still led by eight. During the final media timeout, head coach Mike Anderson preached getting stops and his team never panicked, even when the deficit grew to nine immediately after the timeout.

“In practice, we work on three-minute periods like that, so it wasn’t anything new to us,” Macon said. “We just had to come together and get stops, get the right stops and keep it going.”

Arlando Cook missed a free throw with 3:33 left and Tennessee – which had been getting late in the shot clock all game – attempted a three-pointer 10 seconds later. Barford came up with the rebound and threw it ahead to Macon for a fast-break three.

Barford stole the ensuing inbounds pass and Daniel Gafford put his missed layup back in to cut the deficit to three points. The Volunteers pushed it back out to five, but four straight points by Barford and a big dunk by Gafford gave Arkansas its first lead of the game with 45 seconds left.

That dunk gave the Razorbacks’ 6-foot-11 freshman 15 points, only two of which came in the first half when he struggled against Tennessee’s big men.

“It’s just a learning process for Daniel,” Barford said. “I know he struggled in the first half because he wasn’t used to that physicality.

“He had (Grant) Williams and (Admiral) Schofield banging him, so it just took encouragement and keep pushing because he is a young freshman. He still wants to learn, too, so I think that second half he really helped us out a whole lot.”

Tennessee had a chance to take the lead with 18 seconds remaining, but Jordan Bone – who came into the game shooting 84.4 percent from the free throw line – made only 1 of 2 after a foul by Beard. The game went to overtime tied 73-73 when Macon’s last-second three-pointer was off the mark.

“There were a lot of big play situations in the game,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said. “I thought we had about a two-and-a-half to three-minute space where I didn’t think we were really poised, executing and getting the ball in bounds where we knew what we wanted to do.”

There was a brief back-and-forth at the beginning of the overtime period before Arkansas went on a 12-0 run to take an 11-point lead with 47 seconds left.

The Razorbacks made just enough free throws to survive a late barrage by the Volunteers. Macon scored 13 of their 22 points in the five-minute period, including a perfect 6 of 6 from the charity stripe. He finished with a career-high 33 points.

“That’s Daryl Macon,” Anderson said. “We’ve seen him do that. He’s capable of doing that. I thought our guys did a good job of really going through him and some of it was in the open floor.”

Barford also had a career high, scoring 28 points to go with his five rebounds, four assists and two steals. He was the only starter without a turnover, as well.

It is the first time Arkansas has ever had multiple players score at least 28 points in an SEC game and improves the Razorbacks' record to 32-21 when playing AP top-25 opponents as an unranked team at Bud Walton Arena.

“When you talk about going to that next level, you have to have guys that can make play,” Anderson said. “It’s good to see them be in position to make plays.

“We didn’t have some of the other things going for us, but those guys, they have the confidence to go out and make plays. … That makes a big, big difference.”

Arkansas continues SEC play next week with a pair of road games. First up is a trip to Starkville, Miss., on Tuesday to play Mississippi State. Then the Razorbacks play at Auburn on Saturday.

Both of those teams went 11-1 in non-conference play and it will be Arkansas’ first road games since getting blown out at Houston earlier this month.

“This is a different road game from the PK80 and Houston,” Macon said. “This is an SEC road game, so it’s going to be a lot tougher.

“One thing we have to do is just stay together on the road. We can’t shy away from the moment.”

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