LEXINGTON, Ky. — Josiah-Jordan James didn't change a thing.

Amid a seemingly unshakable offensive slump through the first six games of SEC play, the Tennessee fifth-year guard was adamant about keeping his same routine in lead up to games.

Afterall, James has played long enough to know that struggles don't last. There was a point, early in his final season with the Vols that he was playing arguably the best basketball of his college career before Tennessee entered its league slate.

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Saturday night inside Rupp Arena, James' patience paid off.

In a top 10 clash with Kentucky and in a game with heavy conference championship implications, James finished with a career-high 26 points and nearly every single one of them came in critical moments, too. It started with a 3-pointer 40 seconds into the first half and that was all it took for James to go back to looking like the player he a little more than a month ago.

It was James that appropriately provided Tennessee with the final blow, his fourth and final three with less than three minutes left to put the Vols back ahead double digits on their way to a 103-92 victory.

"I always go back to trusting my work. When I'm playing poorly, playing well, my routine doesn't change," James said. "I get in, I get my work in on a daily basis. Sometimes shots just don't fall. I've been playing basketball for 23 years. You through ruts, you go through shooting slumps. It's always about what you can control: being a good teammate, being a leader...Thankfully today, shots were able to fall."

No one inside Kentucky's sold-out home venue was more surprised by James' performance than Rick Barnes.

Even as the sluggish performances piled up in the month of January, Barnes constantly voiced his confidence in James and that he would be able to get back to producing on the offensive end.

Having a front row seat to James' preparation for the last five years helped and in the days situated between an uncharacteristic home loss to South Carolina and a major bounce-back opportunity on the road, he looked like his old self.

MORE FROM VOLREPORT: Key takeaways: Josiah-Jordan James is back

"(James) has been a huge part of this program from the time he walked on campus," Barnes said. "And what I love about him, and I’ve said it before, when Jordan (Gainey) was going through a little bit of a slump, he struggled in practice. But the last two days, we’ve had some really good work in practice. And Josiah got back to getting aggressive...But, am I surprised with Josiah?

"I mean, we’ve been through so much with those guys and I’m not surprised because of our older guys. Our experience I thought was really, really important tonight.”

James' resurgence is a good sign for Tennessee, especially in February.

On a veteran-laden roster, it has been newcomer Dalton Knecht that has accounted for much of the Vols' offensive production, putting together a string of spectacular scoring performances this season.

But it became clear after the South Carolina loss that Tennessee was going to have to rely on more than Knecht. The Kentucky game provided the blueprint.

Zakai Zeigler had 26 points of his own along with 11 assists and both Santiago Vescovi and Jonas Aidoo finished in double scoring figures with 11 points each.

"Coach (Barnes) has been harping on that for the past three days," James said. "I feel like in our preparation we were able to hone in on that, just guys being aggressive. Not only myself, but Santi (Vescovi), Zakai (Zeigler), Jonas (Aidoo), Jahamai (Mashack)—everybody who touches the floor, just having that confidence and playing that aggressively on offense is big for us and will be big for us moving forward down the road in the SEC."

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For James, there may not have been a more appropriate setting to find his stride again.

In his nearly five years in the program, James has been a part of unprecedented road success in Tennessee's long-standing rivalry with Kentucky.

He will finish his career with a winning record at Rupp Arena in no small part because of an individual performance that will likely be talked about anytime the Vols and Wildcats are brought up.

"It means the world," James said. "Coming to Tennessee, I took so many visits, so I know what this rivalry means to us as a program, to the University of Tennessee. There's so much rich history between us. Ending it the way I did tonight, the way that we were able to tonight—because 26 points doesn't matter if you don't come out with a win. It was a full-team effort. It was great to go out that way."

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