GAME STORY: Arkansas leads by 13 points late, implodes in 85-83 overtime loss to Texas Tech in NCAAT Sweet Sixteen

By Kevin McPherson

The 10-seed Arkansas Razorbacks were hoping to continue their impressive March Madness march in the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night in the Sweet Sixteen, but instead they suffered one of their all-too-familiar late-second-half implosion stretches as they blew a 13-point lead in the final 4:21 of regulation before losing in overtime, 85-83, to 3-seed and 9th-ranked Texas Tech in the West region semifinals in San Francisco, Calif.

Arkansas led by as many as 16 points in the second half, 61-45 with 9:29 left in the game, and the Hogs were ahead by 13 points, 69-56, with 4:22 remaining, but another late long stretch of self-inflicted wounds — poor shot selection early in the shot clock (i.e. unnecessary and ill-advised three-point shot launches); inability to close out defensvie possessions with rebounds (in waves); turnovers; overall poor decision-making with lack of understanding of clock relative to game situation; and a missed free throw on the front-end of a 1-and-1 opportunity with 24 seconds left while clinging to a three-point lead — ALL conspired to fuel a furious 14-3 TTU run to send the game to overtime.

From there, the lead see-sawed a bit before the Red Raiders claimed an 81-78 advantage with 1:41 to go in the extra period. That’s when Hogs junior forward Trevon Brazile splashed a game-tying three-pointer to make it 81-all at the 1:24 mark of overtime. Arkansas fell behind by two points, 83-81, on a JT Toppin paint bucket, but Hogs sophomore guard DJ Wagner scored on a driving layup to tie the game at 83-all with 34 seconds left in overtime, setting up Red Raiders big shot-maker Darrion Williams’ game-winning close-range shot in the paint for the final margin, 85-83 at the 0:07 mark. Wagner’s mid-range shot attempt fell short as time expired.

The Hoop Hogs (22-14) had hoped to take the program to its 11th Elite Eight berth all-time (which would have been the third in the past five seasons).

Instead, it’s the Red Raiders (28-8) that will play No. 1-seed and 3rd-ranked Florida (33-4) on Saturday for the West region championship and a berth into the Final Four.

“For me, this was as rewarding a year — and I feel like crap right now — but this was as rewarding a year as I’ve had in all my years,” first-year Arkasnas coach John Calipari said after his team’s heartbreaking loss. “Now, I’ve had teams that were better, finished better, and national champions and all that stuff. This was a different reward. Different reward.”

Despite the loss, Calipari — long ago ensired into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame — is one of only two coaches in college basketball history to lead four different schools to the Sweet Sixteen (UMass, Memphis, Kentucky, and Arkansas). The NCAAT’s winningest active head coach (58 victories in the Big Dance), Calipari also established himself as the greatest first-year Head Hog — a 22-win season as part of a Sweet Sixteen run — in school history.

The Razorbacks made the program’s 15th Sweet Sixteen appearance all-time as they slipped to 8-7 in Sweet Sixteen tilts.

Arkansas finished 2-1 in this NCAAT by virtue of beating two higher-seeded teams — 79-72 over 7-seed Kansas in the first round on March 20, and 75-66 over 2-seed and 5th-ranked St. John’s in the Round of 32 on March 22 — prior to Thursday’s loss to 3-seed TTU.

The Hogs won 7 of their last 10 games as they finished to 8-10 away from home on the season (that’s a final 4-4 record in neutral-site games to go with a final 4-6 mark in true road games, the latter of which includes a final 3-6 mark in SEC road games).

With their loss to the Red Raiders, the Razorbacks fell to 40-41 in the all-time series between the two schools.

Down to seven rotation pieces for weeks playing without leading scorer and leading rebounder Adou Thiero (left knee injury) as well second-leading scorer and assists leader Boogie Fland (thumb injury), Arkansas was able to expand its rotation back to eight players with the return of Fland in the NCAAT wins over Kansas and St. John’s, and they got Thiero back for a full nine-player rotation against TTU.

Senior guard Johnell Davis led all scorers with a season-high 30 points (8-of-22 field goal, including 3-of-9 from 3, and 11-of-11 free throws) to go with 6 rebounds, 1 assists, and a boxscore plus-4 in 39 minutes.

Freshman wing Karter Knox finished with 20 points (6-of-8 field goals, including 4-of-4 from 3, and 4-of-5 free throws) — its was his second 20-points-or-more scoring game of the season — to go with 6 rebounds, 2 turnovers, and a boxscore plus-3 in 36 minutes.

Wagner had 13 points (5-of-14 field goals, including 1-of-4 from 3, and 2-of-2 free throws), a team-high 4 assists and 3 rebounds in 38 minutes.

Brazile chipped in 11 points (4-of-8 field goals, including 2-of-5 from 3, and 1-of-1 free throw), 5 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block, and a boxscore plus-5 in 36 minutes.

Senior center Jonas Aidoo had 6 points (3-of-5 field goals and 0-of-1 free throw, the latter of which was the aforementioned missed front-end of a 1-and-1 opportunity when Arkansas led 72-69 with 24 seconds remaining in regulation). Aidoo also contributed a team-high 9 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steak, 1 block, and 3 turnovers in 34 minutes.

Freshman wing Billy Richmond III (2 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 turnover — the latter of which was an errant pass that went directly to a Red Raider for a transtion layup to kick-start that 14-3 regulation-ending run — in 15 minutes); sophomore center Zvonimir Ivisic (0 points on one missed field goal attempt, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 turnover in 12 minutes); Fland (0 points on 0-of-3 field goals, 1 rebound, 1 steal, and 1 turnover in 9 minutes), and Thiero (1 point on 0-of-1 three-point shooting and 1-of-2 free throws, 1 rebound, and 1 turnover in 5 first-half minutes) all played off the bench.

As a team, Arkansas shot 27-of-65 from the field (41.5%), including 10-of-25 from 3 (40.0%), and 19-of-22 from the free throw line (86.4%).

Although the three-point percentage and made volume was good, it was the aforementioned notion of hoisting early-shot clock three’s late while trying to maintain a multiple-possession lead — Arkansas was 1-of-5 from distance in the final 3:11 of regulation — instead of working the shot and game clocks while probing for close-range shots and potentially foul calls to generate free throw attempts.

And though the free throw shooting was elite overall, the Hogs had 2 of their total 3 missed freebies at the end of regulation (Aidoo’s miss) and in the extra period (Knox’s lone miss).

TTU was 34-of-83 shooting from the field (41.0%), including 8-of-32 from 3 (25.0%), and 9-of-11 at the foul line (81.8%).

Arkansas was destroyed in points-in-the-paint (50-30), points-off-turnovers (18-3), offensive glass (22-11), second-chance-points (16-9), total rebounds (51-39), bench scoring (19-3), and fastbreak scoring (5-1). The Hogs also lost turnovers (12-10), steals (7-4), blocks (6-3), and assists (12-10).

For the game, the Hogs failed to win a single statistical category aside from shooting percentages when stacked up against Texas Tech. The Red Raiders had three players score at least 20 points — Williams and Toppin each had 20 to go with 9 rebounds each, and freshman guard Christian Anderson led the team with 22 points.

Calipari started Aidoo, Brazile, Knox, Wagner, and Davis for the third consecutive game.

Arkansas went up by 13 points, 38-25, on two made free throws by Wagner, but TTU closed the first half on a 6-0 run as the Hogs’ advantage was cut to 38-31 at the break.

Davis had 14 points and Knox 11 to lead the Razorbacks in the first half.

The Hogs shot 11-of-29 from the field (37.9%), including 7-of-14 from 3 (50.0%), and 9-of-10 from the free throw line (90.0%) in the opening half. Texas Tech shot 12-of-34 overall from the field (35.3%), including 3-of-16 from 3 (18.8%) in the first half. The Red Raiders hit 4-of-5 freebies (80.0%) in the first 20 minutes.

Other than shooting percentages, Arkansas did not win a single statistical category compared to TTU in the first half.