Arkansas clipped by Oklahoma at home, 65-62, on Saturday as Hogs on path for second consecutive season as SEC bottom-feeder

By Kevin McPherson

Arkansas may have been successful in forcing another grind game that came down to the wire, but its downward spiral ways were back in effect as Oklahoma scored three unanswered points in the final 1:15 to break open a tie game for a 65-62 win on Saturday at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville in the first-ever league matchup between the two programs.

Oklahoma forward Jalon Moore made 1-of-2 free throws with 1:15 to play to give the Sooners a 63-62 lead, and after the teams exchanged empty offensive possessions, the Sooners got one more defensive stop when Arkansas guard Johnell Davis’ baseline drive following a pass on a back-door cut resulted in his wild shot attempt with 4 seconds left to play — replay indicated Davis might have been contacted by a defender on his drive, but no foul was called — and Oklahoma secured the defensive rebound on Davis’ miss and threw ahead to Moore who leaked out for a dunk with less than a second remaining to give the Sooners a 65-62 lead. The game clock expired as Hogs center Zvonimir Ivisic awkwardly attempted to launch an 80-foot, potential-game-tying three-point hook shot.

The Razorbacks had overcome a 13-point first-half deficit to pull within 4 points at the break, 35-31, before building their biggest lead of the game, 50-44, at the midway point of the second half. But that’s when the Hogs inexplicably fouled three-point shooters — yes, shooters plural, and on back-to-back defensive possessions no less — as Oklahoma, an elite free throw shooting team on the season (80% ranks 4th in Division 1), connected on all six free throw attempts to tie the game at 50-all. From that point on, neither team enjoyed more than a one-possession lead as the Hogs authored several self-inflicted wounds en route to letting a winnable game once again slip through their fingers.

Arkansas (12-8, 1-6 SEC, NCAA NET No. 57) was coming off its first conference win — a dramatic 68-65 come-from-behind victory over Georgia on Wednesday at BWA — after losing an unprecedented five straight contests to begin SEC play.

The defeat against the Sooners means the Razorbacks have lost 6 of their first 7 SEC games as they sit all alone in 15th place in the 16-team league (only South Carolina has a worse league mark at 0-7). Last season, Arkansas also began 1-6 in SEC play before finishing near the bottom of the league at 6-12.

“Well, they (OU) fought and they did enough to win the game,” Arkansas head coach John Calipari said. “Couple fouls, three-point shooters, the first half. If you were in the shoot around, we talked about tough two’s. ‘We’re not giving up threes.’ And then we start the game and all of a sudden, they got seven threes at halftime. Those kids played and they made no threes.

“Now, we fouled two three-point shooters, and I have to watch the tape, but I imagine they did foul or they wouldn’t have called them. Execution down the stretch, we did some good stuff, maybe didn’t finish it off, but there’s a hard fought game. Had our chances again.”

Saturday’s loss also marked the Razorbacks’ third home defeat in their last four games at BWA as they fell to 10-3 at home (that’s 9-3 at BWA, including 1-3 in SEC games, and 1-0 at Simmons Bank Arena in North Little Rock). They’re 2-5 away from home (includes a 1-3 in true road games and 1-2 in neutral-site tilts).

The loss to Oklahoma (15-4, 2-4 SEC, NCAA NET No. 47) dropped Arkansas to 17-15 in the all-time series between the two programs. Including the previous three seasons when the two teams played non-conference games in Tulsa, Okla., the Sooners have won 3 of the last 4 meetings against the Hogs.

The Razorbacks are 2-7 in Quad-1 games, now 0-1 in Q2, 2-0 in Q3, and 8-0 in Q4.

The Hogs shot 20-of-54 from the field (37.0%), including 9-of-27 from 3 (33.3%), and 13-of-16 from the free throw line (81.3%). Oklahoma shot 21-of-51 overall from the field (41.2%), including 7-of-31 from 3 (33.3%). The Sooners hit 16-of-20 freebies (80.0%).

Arkansas did a good job of keeping OU off the free throw line in the first half as the Sooners managed just 2-of-4 freebies in the first 20 minutes, but the second half was a script-flipper as OU knocked down 14-of-16 (87.5) at the line. In a game that saw the Hogs lose by three points while finishing minus-3 in made free throws, the difference between winning and losing boiled down to Arkansas constantly sending their elite free throw shooting opponent to the foul line in the second half of a tight game.

Arkansas lost rebounds (35-28), offensive rebounds (8-7), second-chance-points (13-7), points-in-the-paint (28-20), fastbreak scoring (6-4), bench scoring (16-13), and assists (11-10). Arkasnas won turnovers (13-9), blocks (4-2), and steals (7-6). Each team scored 10 points-off-turnovers.

Davis had a season-high 18 points, but once again he did not shoot well as he hit only 5-of-16 field goals, including 3-of-11 from 3. He made 5-of-6 at the free throw line while also contributing 4 steals, 3 rebounds, and 1 turnover with a boxscore plus-1 in 35 minutes.

Sophomore guard DJ Wagner (13 points, 5 assists, 4 rebound, 1 steal and 2 turnovers); junior 3/4-combo forward Adou Thiero (10 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals, and 2 turnovers); and Ivisic (10 points, 6 rebounds, 4 blocks, and 1 turnover) were the other double-digit scorers for the Hogs. Freshman wing Karter Knoxs started and had 8 points (all in the first half), 4 rebounds, and 1 block. Veteran big men Jonas Aidoo and Trevon Brazile combined for 3 points, 3 rebounds, 2 turnovers, and zero blocks in a collective 26 minutes. Freshmen wing Billy Richmond III played off the bench but did not score.

Freshman guard Jeremiah Fears led OU with 16 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals while Moore finished with 13 points and 6 rebounds.

Next up for the Razorbacks is a road game as they’ll face No. 9 Kentucky on Saturday, Feb. 1 (8 p.m. CT, ESPN) in Calipari’s return to Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky., where he was the head coach spanning the previous 15 seasons.

Calipari started Knox, Aidoo, Wagner, Davis, and Thiero against Oklahoma.

Arkansas jumped out to an 8-3 lead, but fell behind by 13 points (33-20) before outscoring OU 11-2 to pull within a 35-31 deficit at the break.

Knox had 8 points — including two early three-point field goals — to lead the Razorbacks in the first half.