Tons of great stats and quotes in here...
arkansas.rivals.com
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas nearly choked it away down the stretch, but managed to come away with a wild overtime win over Texas A&M on Saturday.
Hassan Diarra knocked down a 3-pointer with 9 seconds left to force an extra period and the Aggies took their first lead of the night early in overtime before the Razorbacks made just enough plays in the closing seconds to win 76-73 in overtime.
“Something that we say to each other is that we've seen everything this year,” Jaylin Williams said. “We've been down 20, we've been down five, six, eight, whatever it is, so regardless of what the score is, I know that this team is going to continue to fight back.”
In a game it led for all but 62 seconds - and never trailed - in regulation, Arkansas squandered a 6-point lead with less than a minute remaining. Before Diarra’s clutch 3, the Aggies got three points at the free throw line when Quenton Jackson was fouled attempting a shot beyond the arc.
Heading to overtime, the Razorbacks were without star guard JD Notae because he fouled out with about a minute left, so head coach Eric Musselman knew they’d need to lean on their defense to close things out.
“When it went into overtime it was, ‘Hey, forget anything that happened in the first 40 minutes and we’ve got five minutes to play, and the one thing we’ve got to hang our hat on is we’ve got to defend at the same level we have been,’” Musselman said. “Because we’re defending at a level that’s really elite right now.
“It was more talking about that. I knew offensively it might not look pretty, but I thought defensively we were pretty doggone good for an entire game and in overtime as well.”
Ultimately, though, Arkansas won the game with clutch plays on offense.
Texas A&M briefly took the lead early in overtime - its first of the game - before a three-point play by Davonte Davis with 2:31 left put the Razorbacks up for good, but it was far from over at that point.
Clinging to a 1-point lead and with the shot clock and game clock winding down, Chris Lykes drove into the paint, momentarily lost the ball and somehow got to to Williams, who knocked down a jumper to put Arkansas up 74-71 with 13 seconds remaining.
“I just filled out and he gave it to me and I just shot it,” Williams said. “I have confidence in myself and I know my teammates have confidence in me shooting that shot. I work on it every day. I just had confidence, took the shot and it went in.”
On the other end of the floor, Texas A&M was fouled with 5.5 seconds left. It opted to make both, which freshman Wade Taylor IV calmly did to give him a career-high 25 points, instead of intentionally missing with the hope of getting a rebound.
After a couple of timeouts, Davis was able to break open for the inbounds pass and quickly pushed the ball up the floor with a pass to Stanley Umude. Rather than dribbling out the clock, he took it to the hole and dunked it.
“He got me the ball at a good angle,” Umude said. “I knew I was going to be able to get the rim and at least draw a foul if anything. I just took it to the rim and the rest was what it was.”
The play set off a celebration inside Bud Walton Arena, with fireworks going off behind the basket and the lights in the arena flashing. However, there was still 1.2 seconds on the clock. Luckily for the Razorbacks, Texas A&M’s last-second heave came up empty to cap a crazy finish.
“It was a great basketball game to watch, a great basketball game to participate in,” Musselman said. “I’m sure with the players, it was a great game to play in for both groups.”
It was the Razorbacks’ fourth straight win since an 0-3 start to SEC play and avenged their 86-81 loss to the Aggies in College Station, Texas, two weeks earlier. Arkansas is now 14-5 overall and 4-3 in conference play, while Texas A&M dropped to 15-4, 4-2.
Here are a few other key takeaways from Saturday’s win over the Aggies…
Hot Start
For a moment early on against Texas A&M, it looked like Arkansas might do to it what it did against Missouri at the beginning of its current four-game winning streak.
The Razorbacks jumped out to a 20-4 lead in the game’s first 8.5 minutes and seemed to be on their way to replicated their 44-point blowout of the Tigers.
After going 0 of 11 beyond the arc Tuesday, snapping its 1,092-game streak with at least one 3-pointer, Arkansas knocked down its first two and 4 of its first 5 on Saturday. That sparked the offensive explosion, plus the Aggies shot just 1 of 10 to start the game.
It was eerily similar to the two teams’ matchup in College Station two weeks earlier, as the Razorbacks raced out to a 20-9 lead in that game.
“The game at A&M at College Station, we got off to a really good start, too,” Musselman said. “We watched it today at our team meal. … They're a team that's scrappy and competitive. You look at their record and they've got a heck of a record, so they're going to keep coming at you.”
Sure enough, the same thing happened as the first time around. Texas A&M got back into it, hitting three 3-pointers in a three-minute span to cut its deficit in half.
Both teams shot the ball much better from beyond the arc than they did in their last game. Arkansas eventually cooled off, but still went 7 of 20 (35.0%), while Texas A&M - when was 1 of 22 against Kentucky on Tuesday - ended up 8 of 26 (30.6%).
“Basketball is just a game of runs,” Williams said. “Shots are gonna fall, shots are gonna miss. So I think it was just the flow of the game.”
(Story continues in next post)
HawgBeat - Key takeaways, box score from Arkansas' 76-73 OT win over Texas A&M
HawgBeat brings you the key takeaways from Arkansas' wild overtime win over Texas A&M on Saturday.
arkansas.rivals.com
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas nearly choked it away down the stretch, but managed to come away with a wild overtime win over Texas A&M on Saturday.
Hassan Diarra knocked down a 3-pointer with 9 seconds left to force an extra period and the Aggies took their first lead of the night early in overtime before the Razorbacks made just enough plays in the closing seconds to win 76-73 in overtime.
“Something that we say to each other is that we've seen everything this year,” Jaylin Williams said. “We've been down 20, we've been down five, six, eight, whatever it is, so regardless of what the score is, I know that this team is going to continue to fight back.”
In a game it led for all but 62 seconds - and never trailed - in regulation, Arkansas squandered a 6-point lead with less than a minute remaining. Before Diarra’s clutch 3, the Aggies got three points at the free throw line when Quenton Jackson was fouled attempting a shot beyond the arc.
Heading to overtime, the Razorbacks were without star guard JD Notae because he fouled out with about a minute left, so head coach Eric Musselman knew they’d need to lean on their defense to close things out.
“When it went into overtime it was, ‘Hey, forget anything that happened in the first 40 minutes and we’ve got five minutes to play, and the one thing we’ve got to hang our hat on is we’ve got to defend at the same level we have been,’” Musselman said. “Because we’re defending at a level that’s really elite right now.
“It was more talking about that. I knew offensively it might not look pretty, but I thought defensively we were pretty doggone good for an entire game and in overtime as well.”
Ultimately, though, Arkansas won the game with clutch plays on offense.
Texas A&M briefly took the lead early in overtime - its first of the game - before a three-point play by Davonte Davis with 2:31 left put the Razorbacks up for good, but it was far from over at that point.
Clinging to a 1-point lead and with the shot clock and game clock winding down, Chris Lykes drove into the paint, momentarily lost the ball and somehow got to to Williams, who knocked down a jumper to put Arkansas up 74-71 with 13 seconds remaining.
“I just filled out and he gave it to me and I just shot it,” Williams said. “I have confidence in myself and I know my teammates have confidence in me shooting that shot. I work on it every day. I just had confidence, took the shot and it went in.”
On the other end of the floor, Texas A&M was fouled with 5.5 seconds left. It opted to make both, which freshman Wade Taylor IV calmly did to give him a career-high 25 points, instead of intentionally missing with the hope of getting a rebound.
After a couple of timeouts, Davis was able to break open for the inbounds pass and quickly pushed the ball up the floor with a pass to Stanley Umude. Rather than dribbling out the clock, he took it to the hole and dunked it.
“He got me the ball at a good angle,” Umude said. “I knew I was going to be able to get the rim and at least draw a foul if anything. I just took it to the rim and the rest was what it was.”
The play set off a celebration inside Bud Walton Arena, with fireworks going off behind the basket and the lights in the arena flashing. However, there was still 1.2 seconds on the clock. Luckily for the Razorbacks, Texas A&M’s last-second heave came up empty to cap a crazy finish.
“It was a great basketball game to watch, a great basketball game to participate in,” Musselman said. “I’m sure with the players, it was a great game to play in for both groups.”
It was the Razorbacks’ fourth straight win since an 0-3 start to SEC play and avenged their 86-81 loss to the Aggies in College Station, Texas, two weeks earlier. Arkansas is now 14-5 overall and 4-3 in conference play, while Texas A&M dropped to 15-4, 4-2.
Here are a few other key takeaways from Saturday’s win over the Aggies…
Hot Start
For a moment early on against Texas A&M, it looked like Arkansas might do to it what it did against Missouri at the beginning of its current four-game winning streak.
The Razorbacks jumped out to a 20-4 lead in the game’s first 8.5 minutes and seemed to be on their way to replicated their 44-point blowout of the Tigers.
After going 0 of 11 beyond the arc Tuesday, snapping its 1,092-game streak with at least one 3-pointer, Arkansas knocked down its first two and 4 of its first 5 on Saturday. That sparked the offensive explosion, plus the Aggies shot just 1 of 10 to start the game.
It was eerily similar to the two teams’ matchup in College Station two weeks earlier, as the Razorbacks raced out to a 20-9 lead in that game.
“The game at A&M at College Station, we got off to a really good start, too,” Musselman said. “We watched it today at our team meal. … They're a team that's scrappy and competitive. You look at their record and they've got a heck of a record, so they're going to keep coming at you.”
Sure enough, the same thing happened as the first time around. Texas A&M got back into it, hitting three 3-pointers in a three-minute span to cut its deficit in half.
Both teams shot the ball much better from beyond the arc than they did in their last game. Arkansas eventually cooled off, but still went 7 of 20 (35.0%), while Texas A&M - when was 1 of 22 against Kentucky on Tuesday - ended up 8 of 26 (30.6%).
“Basketball is just a game of runs,” Williams said. “Shots are gonna fall, shots are gonna miss. So I think it was just the flow of the game.”
(Story continues in next post)
