GAME STORY: Hogs’ furious comeback falls short as No. 3 Alabama tops Arkansas, 85-81, on Saturday at Bud Walton Arena

By Kevin McPherson

FAYETTEVILLE — Getting back on track in the SEC is one thing, but bouncing the prohibitive league favorite and a Final Four contender in 3rd-ranked Alabama is quite another. Arkansas orchestrated a massive comeback from an 18-point second-half deficit on Saturday but fell short as the Razorbacks had their two-game winning streak halted by the Tide, 85-81, in front of 19,200 fans inside Bud Walton Arena.

The Hogs trailed by 18 points multiple times inside of 10 minutes left in the game, the last of which was a 75-57 deficit at the 6:29 mark. But that was when the Arkansas quintet of Adou Thiero, Zvonimir Ivisic, Nelly Davis, DJ Wagner, and Billy Richmond III authored a furious comeback to fuel a 21-6 run capped by Wagner’s two made free throws to pull within 81-78 with 1:17 to play.

On ‘Bama’s ensuing offensive possession, veteran forward Grant Nelson scored on a putback with 57 seconds left to extend the Tide back to a two-possession lead, 83-78. Ivisic scored on a reverse layup with 0:38 remaining to once again cut the ‘Bama lead down to three points, 83-80.

The Razorbacks got a stop on their ensuing defensive possession, and after bringing the ball into the frontcourt Arkansas called timeout with 7 seconds to go. Davis received the inbounds pass to resume play, but chose not to attempt a three-point shot as he passed to Ivisic, who was fouled with 5.5 seconds left before he could attempt a three-pointer. Ivisic missed the first free throw but made the second, cutting the Tide advantage to 83-81.

From there, ‘Bama had two 1-of-2 free throw trips sandwiched around the Hogs losing a defensive rebound out of bounds that extended the Tide to their final winning margin of four points at 85-81.

Arkansas (14-9, 3-7 SEC, NCAA NET No. 43) had won 3 of its last 4 games prior to the ‘Bama tilt, including back-to-back Quad-1 road victories — 78-70 at Texas on Feb. 5 and 89-79 at then-No. 12 Kentucky on Feb. 1 — to set up Saturday’s showdown against the preseason pick to win the SEC.

“The hardest thing for me, how did we get out of our mindset into the expectation?” Arkansas head coach John Calipari asked rhetorically to open his post-game press conference. “What happened? And that’s what I told them. We had played with nothing to lose, and I talked about it all day. They (‘Bama) have to win this game. We don’t. We just got to go and let’s make it close and let’s see what happens. And the start of the second half we just, I mean, I had to call time out, I had to sub, I had to— I’m talking three minutes in.

“But this team never stopped again, and they came back and they made plays. You know why? They played fearless. Instead of playing, you know, they played fearless, and that’s what they have to do. And I told them after the last play, Nelly was supposed to shoot it or Z because we told them, ‘They are fouling. They are going to foul you,’ so you couldn’t run something where the guy was going away from the basket, because he can’t shoot it. So we looped him. Shoot it. Could have been four. Threw it to Z. ‘Well, he was on me.’ Shoot it anyway. You get three shots. So again, now that’s a situation they absolutely understand. You win or you learn. We learned there, and maybe I didn’t communicate it as well as I should have, but two offensive rebounds late cost us. Two. Air ball, boom, stick in. Could have won the game on that. Now, Alabama deserved to win the game, but we fought and never gave up.”

The Razorbacks fell to 10-4 at home on the season (that’s 9-4 at BWA, including 1-4 in SEC home games, and 1-0 at Simmons Bank Arena in North Little Rock). They’re 4-5 away from home (includes a 3-3 mark in true road games and 1-2 in neutral-site tilts).

The Hoop Hogs are now 2-5 against Associated Press Top 25-ranked teams, and they’re 3-7 in Q1 games (all three Q1 wins were earned in games played away from home against teams ranked Top 25 in NET). They’re also 1-2 in Q2, 3-0 in Q3, and 7-0 in Q4.

Arkansas was projected first among the “First Four Out” teams (a.k.a. one spot away from being an NCAAT at-large-bid qualifier) in ESPN’s latest NCAA Tournament Bracketology update that was released on Friday.

It’s been a significant course-correction spanning the last three weeks to revive Arkansas’ NCAAT at-large-bid hopes following the program’s unprecedented string of five straight losses to begin SEC play.

The loss to ‘Bama (20-3, 9-1 SEC, NCAA NET No. 6) extended the Tide’s current winning streak to six games while dropping Arkansas to 36-34 in the all-time series between the two programs, including 20-8 in Fayetteville.

An elite offensive team coming in, which included 60% field goal shooting inside the arc on the season, ‘Bama was even better on Saturday, making 29-of-43 on two-point attempts — most if not all of that came at or near the rim — for 67.4%. The Tide were pedestrian everywhere else — 5-of-19 from 3 (26.3%) and 12-of-18 at the free throw line (66.7%). Overall field goal shooting was 34-of-62 (54.8%) for ‘Bama.

All those close-range buckets fed the Tide’s plus-20 advantage in points-in-the-paint (56-36). ‘Bama also dominated bench scoring (31-11) while winning total rebounds (35-32), points-off-turnovers (15-13), and assists (17-15).

Nelson and veteran guard Chris Youngblood led the Tide with 15 points each while forward Mouhamed Dioubate had 14 points and All SEC guard Mark Sears 11.

Arkansas shot 28-of-65 from the field (43.1%), including 7-of-20 from 3 (35.0%), and 18-of-21 at the foul line (85.7%).

The Hogs won turnovers (14-11), offensive rebounds (13-11), fastbreak scoring (12-6), blocks (7-3), and steals (9-5). Each team scored 12 second-chance-points.

Ivisic scored a career-high 27 points (10-of-18 field goals, including 5-of-9 from 3, and 2-of-4 free throws) to go with 7 rebounds, 3 blocks, 3 steals, and 2 assists.

Thiero once again played with foul trouble but tallied 22 points (8-of-14 field goals, including 1-of-1 from 3, and 5-of-6 free throws), 6 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals in 28 minutes.

Davis had an off shooting night and struggled in the first half (only 2 points in the opening 20 minutes), but he finished with 13 points (4-of-13 field goals, including 1-of-5 from 3, and 4-of-4 free throws), 3 rebounds, and 1 steal.

Richmond had 9 points (4-of-6 from the field and 1-of-1 at the foul line), 4 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 assist, and 1 block. Wagner had 8 points (1-of-6 field goals, including 0-of-4 from 3, and 6-of-6 free throws), a season-high 9 assists, and 1 steal.

Karter Knox and Jonas Aidoo failed to score on combined 0-of-7 shooting while Trevon Brazile had 2 points on a putback dunk to go with 6 rebounds.

Next up for the Razorbacks is another home game on Wednesday, Feb. 12, when they’ll face LSU at BWA (8 p.m. CT).

Calipari started Karter Knox, Jonas Aidoo, DJ Wagner, Nelly Davis, and Adou Thiero for the fifth consecutive game.

Arkansas led 2-0 on an Ivisic baseline shot, fell behind 20-10, fought back within a point, 33-32, but was outscored 7-2 in the closing minutes of the first half to trail by six points, 40-34, at the break.

Ivisic had 15 points and Thiero 11 to lead the Razorbacks in the first half.

The Hogs shot 13-of-37 from the field (35.1%), including 4-of-9 from 3 (44.5%), and 4-of-4 from the free throw line (100%) in the opening half. Alabama shot 16-of-27 overall from the field (59.3%), including 3-of-9 from 3 (33.3%) in the first half. The Tide hit 5-of-6 freebies (83.3%) in the first 20 minutes.

Arkansas won turnovers (9-3), points-off-turnovers (7-4), offensive rebounds (9-5), second-chance-points (8-4) in the first half, but ‘Bama dominated points-in-the-paint (24-14) and bench scoring (18-2).