Tennessee-Georgia Preview

2/15/2008 11:58 AM

By MIKE VOTTA
STATS Senior Writer

JaJuan Smith is making sure that Tennessee's opponents have to focus on more than just Chris Lofton.

Smith will be looking to build off one of the best offensive performances of his career on Saturday when the fourth-ranked Volunteers visit Georgia.

Lofton, the preseason SEC player of the year and a preseason All-American, leads the Volunteers (22-2, 9-1) with 15.3 points and ranks first in conference history with 392 3-pointers made. He has scored in double figures in 19 of Tennessee's 24 games this season.

However, Lofton was held to just six points in the Volunteers' 93-71 win over Arkansas on Wednesday.

"They were almost playing a box-and-one on Chris Lofton," coach Bruce Pearl said. "We should have done more things to make them ease up on Lofton a little bit.

"But when he is in there being guarded closely as he was tonight, he opens things up for everybody else."

Smith took advantage, matching his career-high with 32 points and making all six of his 3-point attempts to set a school record for 3-point percentage. Four other Vols, including Lofton, had gone 5-of-5.

Smith ranks second on the team in scoring with 15.0 points per game.

"I knew I was feeling it, but if I had been the old JaJuan I would have been rushing things. I just tried to stay patient and let the game come to me," he said.

Smith scored just one basket in the Vols' previous game, a 47-45 win at LSU last Saturday, but it was a crucial one. Despite battling a 101-degree temperature, he stole the ball and hit a layup with 11 seconds left to give Tennessee, which posted its lowest point total of the season, the win.

Lofton had 15 points in that game, ending a streak of five straight with at least 20 points.

"In both of these games, when he was sick Saturday against LSU, and tonight, when he was well, he made significant contributions," Pearl said of Smith.

The victory over the Razorbacks was the sixth straight for Tennessee, which extended the best start in school history. Tyler Smith and Wayne Chism both added 15 points for the Vols, who will now try for their seventh consecutive win in their series with Georgia (12-10, 3-6).

Tennessee beat the Bulldogs 85-69 on Jan. 26 in Knoxville in the first meeting between the teams this season. Lofton had 27 points and hit seven 3-pointers in that game.

Sundiata Gaines led Georgia with 20 points in last month's matchup with the Vols and is averaging a team-high 14.6 per game. He also leads the Bulldogs in assists (4.1), rebounds (6.4), steals (1.9) and minutes played (32.6).

Gaines scored 27 points in Wednesday's 82-64 win over South Carolina, helping Georgia end a five-game losing streak. The scoring output was the second-highest of his career behind the 32 points he scored in the previous game, a 77-67 loss at Florida last Saturday.

"Lately I'm feeling great about my whole game," he said. "I've been working on my 3-point shot. I've been working on my free throws. I feel relaxed and under control."

Gaines has stepped up at a good time, as Georgia was down to just seven scholarship players against the Gamecocks. Takais Brown and Mike Mercer have been kicked off the team, Rashaad Singleton left the Bulldogs and plans to transfer, Billy Humphrey was serving the second game of a three-game suspension for an underage drinking arrest and freshman Chris Barnes was out with an infected eye.

"With the team we have now, I have to step up even more," Gaines said. "There's really no better position than the one I'm in right now. I'm just trying my best to make everyone around me better."