GAME STORY: Arkansas survives South Carolina comeback from 20 points down for 72-68 Hogs win in SECT first round

By Kevin McPherson

They gave themselves another late scare, but the surging 9-seed Arkansas Razorbacks exacted a measure of revenge against 16-seed South Carolina on Wednesday in the first round of the SEC Tournament with a 72-68 win over the Gamecocks at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., picking up their 20th win of the season while establishing their first three-game winning streak since non-conference play in December.

Already a lock for an NCAA Tournament at-large bid despite still living life on the Bubble, the Hoop Hogs (20-12, 9-10 against SEC teams, NCAA NET No. 39) will next face 8-seed and first-round bye recipient Ole Miss (21-10, 10-8 SEC, NCAA NET No. 27) in the SECT second round at noon CT on Thursday.

Down to seven rotation pieces and playing its fifth consecutive game without leading scorer and leading rebounder Adou Thiero (left knee injury) as well its 14th straight contest without second leading scorer and assist leader Boogie Fland (thumb), Arkansas was dominant at both ends, inside and out, from the early going into the beginning stages of the second half against Carolina — the Hogs expanded their commanding 47-30 halftime lead to a 20-point advantage, 54-34, with just under 16 minutes remaining in the contest.

But that’s when an all-too-familar second-half collapse fueled mostly by a flood of Hog self-inflicted-wounds (missed layups, lazy passes leading to turnovers, not closing out defensive possessions with rebounds, and poor execution at both ends) championed a 26-7 Carolina run that cut Arkansas’ lead to one point, 61-60, with under four minutes left in the game.

Arkansas went 11:41 of game clock without making a field goal as part of the that Gamecocks run, but that drought ended when junior forward Trevon Brazile hustled for an offensive rebound, leaving his feet on the Hogs’ baseline drifting out-of-bounds to retrieve it before saving it in, and that hustle play was rewarded by a DJ Wagner second-chance three-point field goal that extended Arkansas to a 64-60 lead with 2:37 remaining.

The lead was down to 64-62 when Brazile maneuvered for an offensive-rebound tip-in that gave the Hogs another two-possession-margin lead, 66-62, with 1:38 to go. After Carolina scored to pull within 66-64 with 47 seconds left in the game, Arkansas called timeout and drew up a play for senior guard Johnell Davis, who drove right-to-left into the paint on his way to a layup for a 68-64 Arkansas edge with 0:32 showing.

Two Arkansas defensive stops sandwiched around a Davis 2-of-2 free throw trip later, the Hogs led 70-64 and Davis was headed back to the foul line for a 1-and-1 opportunity with 0:17 to play. But Davis missed the front end, Carolina scored quickly, the Hogs had a quick turnover trying to beat Carolina’s full-court press that led to another quick Gamecocks score — a series of events that resulted in the Hogs clinging to a two-point lead, 70-68, with 0:03 remaining.

Arkansas inbounded to Davis who was fouled with 2.5 seconds to play. Davis calmly made the first free throw for a three-point lead (but still ONLY a one-possession-margin advantage), 71-68. Davis — an 83.3% free throw shooter on the season — then did the unthinkable: He attempted to miss the second free throw intentionally, but his plan back-fired as the free throw banked in for a four-point lead, 72-68, that stood as the final margin.

“At this point, you want to win games,” Arkansas head coach John Calipari said after the game. “I’ll look at the tape and figure out. But I just thought we got tentative and was trying to get out of the gym. You can’t play that way.

“We have a bunch of guys that compete and did what they had to to win the game, so I’m happy. Would you like to have it a big score? Yeah. But at this time of the year, everybody’s fighting for their lives. South Carolina, in a different league, they’re good. They got big guys. They got guards. I mean, this league is unforgiving.”

Calipari admitted the attempted-intentional-free-throw-miss-that-failed-because-the-ball-banked-in-anyway scenario was all on him.

“I’ve done that before,” Calipari said of his shocking plan. “You’re up three, there’s two seconds to go, miss it, by the time they get it, there’s a second. Now, the other side of that is what if they throw one deep and bank it in? I’ve done it before. I do some unconventional stuff. He banked it in. I was, like, happy. I told him, I’m glad you banked it in.

“He listened too me. He tried to miss it. He shot it flat and banked it in.”

Arkansas has won 5 of its last 6 games, and the three game-winning streak includes a road victory (90-77 at Vanderbilt on March 4), a home win (93-92 vs. Mississippi State on March 8}, and now a neutral-site triumph over the Gamecocks.

The Razorbacks earned a season split against South Carolina (12-20, 2-17 in SEC games, NET No. 87) — includes an embarrassing 72-53 road loss on March 1 — while picking up their fourth Quad-2 win of the season.

Arkansas is 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 4-3 in Q2, 4-0 in Q3, and 7-0 in Q4.

The Hogs are a respectable 6-8 away from home (that’s 4-6 in true road games, including a final 3-6 mark in SEC road games, and now they’re 2-2 in neutral-site tilts).

Arkansas has now likely locked up a first-round NCAAT bye, meaning likely no longer facing a “Last Four In” play-in game in the NCAAT. Arkansas was projected second among the “Last Four Byes” group of teams (a.k.a. on the NCAAT Bubble as a 10-seed at-large-bid qualifier) in ESPN’s latest NCAA Tournament Bracketology update that was released on Wednesday morning.

Brazile continued his late season-surge — the aforementioned clutch hustle plays late in the game as part of notching a team-high 16 points (5-of-9 field goals, including 3-of-6 from 3, and 3-of-3 free throws), 7 rebounds, 4 steals, 1 block, and a boxscore plus-5 in 37 minutes.

Preseason All SEC pick and reserve senior big man Jonas Aidoo also stayed on his late-season big-production path, recording his second-consecutive double-double (and third in his last four games) — 14 points (all in the first half) on 6-of-8 field goals, including 0-of-1 from 3, and 2-of-2 free throws to go with a team-high 11 rebounds, 1 block, and 1 steal.

Davis finished with 14 points (4-of-13 field goals, including 0-of-3 from 3, and 6-of-7 free throws), 3 steals, 2 assists, and a team-best boxscore plus-12 in 36 minutes.

Wagner notched 13 points (5-of-12 from the field, including 3-of-9 from 3), a team-hgih 6 assists, 4 turnovers, and a boxscore plus-6 in 35 minutes.

Freshman reserve wing Billy Richmond III also continued his positive-impact ways, finishing with 9 points (4-of-8 field goals, including 1-of-2 from 3 with the make from distance establishing his first made triple of the season) to go with 4 assists, 2 rebounds, 2 blocks, and a boxscore plus-3 in 26 minutes.

Big man Zvonimir Ivisic (4 points on 4-of-4 free throw shooting, 5 rebounds, and 1 block in 17 minutes) was battling an apparent thumb injury, while freshman wing Karter Knox struggled at times in his 23 minutes as he cobbled together only 2 points and 1 rebound.

As a team, Arkansas’ hot shooting first half was tamed in the final 20 minutes as the Razorbacks finished the game 25-of-56 on field goals (44.6%), including 7-of-22 from 3 (31.8%). The Hogs were stellar at the free throw line, making 15-of-16 (93.8%). Defensively, Arkansas limited Carolina to 23-of-59 from the field (39.0%), includ 8-of-23 from 3 (34.8%). The Gamecocks made 14-of-18 free throws (77.8%).

The Hogs won bench scoring (23-15), points-in-the-paint (30-26), second-chance-points (15-12), assists (13-10), and blocks (5-4). The Gamecocks won rebounds (36-34, including offensive rebounds 12-8), and fastbreak scoring (10-6). Each team had 11 turnovers and each team collected 8 steals.

“I feel like we was all excited just to come out here and play,” Wagner said. “I feel like we was very prepared. We was all ready for the moment. We excited for the postseason. I feel like when it comes to pressure and stuff like that, it’s all about working. I feel when you work, it gets rid of the pressure. You know you worked on a lot of stuff.

“Coach always influences us to go out there and play free. That takes the pressure away when you go out there, make sure you’re playing free and having fun.”

The win over South Carolina moved Arkansas to 24-18 in the all-time series between the two programs, including 4-3 in neutral-site games.

Star forward Collin Murray-Boyles led all scorers (20 points) and rebounders (12 boards) before fouling out in the closing seconds of the game. Veteran big man Chris Pringle finished with only 3 points (1-of-6 field goals and 1-of-2 free throws) and 4 rebounds after having 18 points and 9 rebounds in Carolina’s 19-point win over Arkansas less than two weeks ago.

Calipari started Brazile, Knox, Wagner, Davis, and Ivisic for the fifth consecutive game.

Arkansas was excepational at both ends of the floor in the first 20 minutes as the Hogs used an 11-0 run to close out the first half with a 47-30 lead at the break.

Aidoo had 14 points, 8 rebounds, 1 block, and 1 steal; Wagner had 10 points and 4 assists; and Davis and Brazile each had 8 points to lead the Razorbacks in the first half.

The Hogs shot 17-of-31 from the field (54.8%), including 5-of-13 from 3 (38.5%), and 8-of-8 from the free throw line (100%) in the opening half. Carolina shot 10-of-26 overall from the field (38.5%), including 5-of-11 from 3 (45.5%) in the first half, which means the Gamecocks made just 5-of-15 from inside the arc (33.3%). They hit 5-of-6 freebies (83.3%) in the first 20 minutes.

Arkansas dominated points-in-the-paint (20-10) and bench scoring (19-7) while also winning rebounds (18-12, including 3-1 on the offensive glass), turnovers (6-3), points-off-turnovers (6-2), second-chance-points (4-0) in the first half.