GAME STORY: Arkansas survives No. 25 Mississippi State comeback, 93-92, at BWA to likely lock up NCAA Tournament bid

By Kevin McPherson

FAYETTEVILLE — Facing a win-and-you’re-in scenario in its regular-season finale at home on Saturday, Arkansas overcame a late scare to take care of its hefty NCAA Tournament Bubble business with a thrilling 93-92 victory over 25th-ranked Mississippi State at Bud Walton Arena as the Razorbacks appear to have locked up an NCAAT at-large bid prior to the start of the SEC Tournament that begins on Wednesday, March 12.

The Hoop Hogs (19-12, 8-10 SEC, NCAA NET No. 39) have won back-to-back games as part of winning 4 of their last 5 contests — they’re now 8-5 following the program’s unprecedented string of five straight losses to begin SEC play — and Saturday’s result against the Bulldogs marked Arkansas’ third Quad-2 win of the season.

Down to seven rotation pieces and playing its fourth consecutive game without leading scorer and leading rebounder Adou Thiero (left knee injury) as well its 13th straight contest without second leading scorer and assist leader Boogie Fland (thumb), Arkansas got its best game of the season from preseason All SEC pick Jonas Aidoo, who recorded a double-double — 21 points (including the game-winning free throw with 11.3 seconds remaining), 10 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 blocks off the bench.

Sophomore guard DJ Wagner went off for a season-high 24 points — including a step-back three-point shot that gave the Hogs a 92-89 lead with 44 seconds left in the game — to lead Arkansas, and junior forward Trevon Brazile notched his second-consecutive double-double — 11 points and 11 rebounds after being limited in the first half with foul trouble.

The Razorbacks built up a 16-point lead (70-54 with 11:41 to play in the game), but it was completely erased as MSU surged ahead, 89-87, on an RJ Melendez triple with 1:46 to go. But Wagner hit 2-of-2 free throws to tie the game at 89-all at the 1:23 mark, then after an Arkansas defensive stop, it was Wagner who drained the aforementioned three-pointer to give the Hogs a 92-89 lead with 0:44 showing on the game clock.

On MSU’s ensuing offensive possession, guard Josh Hubbard hit a triple to tie the game at 92-all with 33.6 seconds remaining. On the Hogs’ next offensive possession, Aidoo secured an offensive rebound with 23 seconds to play and was fouled with 0:11 left in the game, leading to his 1-of-2 foul shooting, which proved to be the winning point as the Bulldogs failed to convert on two close-range shot attempts during the game’s final possession.

The Razorbacks are 5-9 in Quad-1 games (three of those Q1 wins were earned against teams currently ranked Top 30 in NET, and four of the Q1 wins were earned away from home). They’re now 3-3 in Q2, 4-0 in Q3, and 7-0 in Q4.

With two 5-star visitors in the house at BWA — Future Hog Darius Acuff, Jr., and priority uncommitted recruit Nate Ament — Arkansas picked up its fourth win over a ranked team on the season.

“Heck of a basketball game,” Arkansas head coach John Calipari said. “Glad we won it. Love how we fought. And I told them, I’ve done this a long time and this may be the most rewarding season for me because they’re a bunch of good kids that struggled early and in their own individual way, and then collectively, we struggled early. Yet, because they were good people, they stuck together. Our staff never blamed, just kept working with them.

“The trick when you’re going through that is that you must keep picking them up — you ready? — but you’ve still got to be a truth teller and you got to hold them accountable. But pick them up. Say, ‘I love you, but you’re not doing the right stuff right now. You’re playing really hard, but you’re not doing enough for us and playing hard in itself is not good enough. You must. That’s a given. Then the rest of the stuff you’re going to have to get.'”

Because Georgia defeated Vanderbilt, 79-68, at home on Saturday, Arkansas finished in a four-way tie for 9th place in the SEC with Mississippi State, Vandy, and Georgia, but by virtue of finishing 3-0 in the head-to-head matchups against those three teams the Razorbacks will slot as the 9-seed in the SECT and will face 16-seed South Carolina in the first round at noon CT on Wednesday in Nashville, Tenn.

The Hogs finished the regular season 14-4 at home (that’s 13-4 at BWA, including 5-4 in SEC home games, and 1-0 at Simmons Bank Arena in North Little Rock). They finished a respectable 5-8 away from home (that’s 4-6 in true road games, including a final 3-6 mark in SEC road games, and they’re 1-2 in neutral-site tilts).

Arkansas was projected fourth among the “Last Four Byes” group of teams (a.k.a. on the NCAAT Bubble as an 11-seed at-large-bid qualifier) in ESPN’s latest NCAA Tournament Bracketology update that was released earlier on Saturday.

As stated above, Saturday’s win over MSU (20-11, 8-10 SEC, NET No. 33) likely secures an NCAAT at-large bid for the Razorbacks even if they lose their SECT opener.

“I think, really just the fight,” Wagner answered when asked about his and the team’s resiliency. “The fight. All of us trusting each other. Just, we’re playing together. Like you said, there’s not a lot of us, but we still got guys cheering us on and we’re still all cheering each other on together. So really just the fight, just focusing on the small things like defense. Trying to get stops first because we know once we get stops, then we can try scoring and stuff like that.

“So, really that. Just trying to do all the small things, just making sure we try to do everything and do it right.”

Arkansas was once again highly efficient shooting everywhere — 31-of-56 field goals (55.4%), including 9-of-21 from 3 (42.9%), and 22-of-27 at the free throw line (81.5%). MSU shot 32-of-73 from the field (43.8%), including 12-of-32 from 3 (37.5%), and 16-of-21 from the free throw line (76.2%).

The Razorbacks won overall rebounds (41-29), points-in-the-paint (42-38), second-chance-points (14-12), blocks (7-4), and assists (21-15). The ‘Dogs won turnovers (10-2), points-off-turnovers (19-4), fastbreak scoring (18-6), offensive rebounds (12-11), and steals (5-3). Each team had 31 bench points.

Wagner made 7-of-9 field goals, including 3-of-4 from 3, and 7-of-7 free throws to go with 5 assists, 2 reboubds, 4 turnovers, and a boxscore plus-4 in 38 minutes.

Aidoo hit 8-of-11 from the field and 5-of-10 free throws for his 21 points. Brazile made 4-of-7 field goals, including 3-of-5 from 3, for his 11 points.

It was Aidoo’s fourth double-double of the season, but his first 20-point double-double since last season when playing for Tennessee he helped wreck the Hogs in BWA.

“It (being healthier relative to a lingering foot injury) has to do with everything,” Aidoo said. “Before, the games I was playing in, like my foot was killing me. I could barely move. But now I can move now. I still have a little bit of pain, but it’s definitely tolerable. I’m just thankful that that pain is starting to go away finally. “

Senior guard Johnell Davis finished with 15 points (4-of-10 field goals,including 3-of-5 from 3, and 4-of-4 free throws) to go with 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, ZERO turnovers, and a boxscore plus-4 in. 34 minutes.

Freshman wing Billy Richmond III contributed 10 points — it was his first double-figure scoring game in SEC play — to go with a game-high 6 assists, 2 rebounds, 2 blocks (the last of which stopped the first of MSU’s two final field goal attempts), and 3 turnovers in 28 minutes.

Freshman wing Karter Knox and sophomore center Zvonimir Ivisic each scored 6 points and combined for 7 rebounds, and Ivisic also recorded two blocks.

“So happy for Jonas,” Calipari said. “It’s been hard. He had an operation. He was out four months. He’s only now coming back. So happy for TB in the second half, but why was I upset? And I kept going down to him. ‘You can’t get two fouls reaching in. It’s not a touchdown, it’s two points. You get two fouls, I can’t put you in because we can’t win if I can’t use you in the second half.’ Great lesson. Glad we learned it and still won. Thought Billy was great. Last block, win a game, made shots. DJ made that step back three and free throws. We did what we had to do. Look, they’re really good. They’re a top 25 team. They’re really good. And we got out, they miss a shot, and we rebound it and we win the game. But they’re good.”

The win over the Bulldogs moved Arkansas to 36-34 in the all-time series between the two programs, including 24-9 in Fayetteville.

Guard Claudelle Harris (18 points) and Hubbard (17 points) led 6 ‘Dogs in double-figure scoring

Calipari started Brazile, Knox, Wagner, Davis, and Ivisic for a fourth consecutive game.

Arkansas trailed by as many as points and led by as many as 4 before settling on a 45-44 advantage at the break.

Aidoo had 11 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists, and Wagner had 10 points, 3 assists, and 2 rebounds to lead the Razorbacks in the first half.

The Hogs shot 15-of-30 from the field (50%), including 3-of-11 from 3 (27.8%), and 12-of-13 from the free throw line (92.3%) in the opening half. MSU shot 13-of-36 overall from the field (36.1%), including 5-of-16 from 3 (31.3%) in the first half. The ‘Dogs hit 13-of-14 freebies (92.9%) after several questionable foul calls on the Razorbacks in the first 20 minutes.