The Arkansas defense was solid in the first half against Vanderbilt and helped carry the Hogs to a 86-73 victory in the first round of the SEC tournament.

Despite 11 first half fouls by the Hogs, Vanderbilt shot a miserable 12% early while Mason Jones had two different 7-point runs to give the Razorbacks a 38-26 lead heading into the locker room.

The takeaways from Arkansas's first win in the SEC tournament...

A day after winning the AP Voters SEC Player of the Year award, Mason Jones matched his season average with 22 points with six rebounds and six assists. Jones is the only Razorback in history to put up that stat line in an SEC tournament game.

The junior went 5-11 from the field and made 10 of 11 free throws as well. As usual, Jones did lead the team in turnovers with four.

After starting the season with an abhorrent shooting percentage from 3-point land, Sills has found his shot. Helping the Hogs to a record 12 three-pointers in an SEC tournament game, Sills went 5-6 from deep and 6-8 overall for 20 points. He also added one rebound and he made three of four free throws.

It was Sills' third 20-point performance of the 2020 season, he had 21 in the loss against Georgia and 20 in the loss to Western Kentucky.

Joe started off the game with a missed three attempt on the Hogs' first possession, had two turnovers and missed another shot before finally making one in the five minutes into the game. He kept shooting it despite going 2-8 to start and finished 6-16 for 18 points with four three-pointers.

He added five rebounds and an assist in his 33 minutes.

For the first time since 2012, Arkansas had both a coach and a player receive a technical foul in the same game. In 2012, it was Mike Anderson and Devonta Abron; in 2020, it's Eric Musselman and Reggie Chaney.

Chaney was called for a technical after Joe was fouled and he got heated in response to the foul. Musselman was called for a tech two minutes later after stepping out of the box and jawing at the refs, he had to be pulled back by assistant Corey Williams.

Musselman's technical was his third of the season, the team's fifth bench tech.

The team had 22 fouls Wednesday night with both Isaiah Joe and Mason Jones fouling out. The fouls gave them some extra time on the bench after 33 minutes each.

With all the fouls, Musselman played nine players, roughly two more than he plays on any given night. If Arkansas wants to go far in this tournament, the players will need as much rest as they can get.

"It was a conscious effort tonight to rest legs as much as possible. Maybe those guys fouling out helped them get an extra breather."

Following an announcement by the NCAA that fans will not be allowed at the tournament this year, the SEC joined every other major conference in deciding to bar fans from the conference tournaments starting Thursday.

Now that Arkansas has beaten Vanderbilt and moved on to the second day of competition, the Razorbacks are scheduled to play South Carolina in front of "essential personnel and media" only.

This is a big change for Arkansas, normally playing in front of anywhere from 12,000 to 19,200 fans on the road and at home in Bud Walton Arena.

Here was Eric Musselman's response to the decision by the SEC:

"For me, it's going to be normal. I coached in the D-League in an empty building. We're not educated enough to know anything other than what people are telling us to do. We've just got to be competitors, just go play.

"I asked the guys, 'What do you think Kobe Bryant would do if he was playing in an empty arena?' There was silence. They know how hard he'd compete."

Tipoff for game two is set for 25 minutes after Missouri and Texas A&M wrap up their game, which is set for 6 p.m.

South Carolina is very likely to be without 6-foot-11 big man Maik Kotsar Thursday night after he suffered a shoulder injury while diving for a loose ball in the final practice before they traveled to Nashville. He did not practice in Nashville on Wednesday. Kotsar averages 11.2 points per game with 6.3 boards. Kotsar put up 10 points and nine boards in the regular season game against Arkansas.