FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas Razorbacks (12-8, 1-6 SEC) followed up their win over Georgia with a close, 65-62 loss to the Oklahoma Sooners (15-4, 2-4 SEC) on Saturday at Bud Walton Arena.
The Hogs, as they did Wednesday, overcame a double-digit deficit, but this time were unable to complete the comeback. With 12.4 seconds left in the game and Arkansas trailing by one, Johnell Davis — who finished with a team-high 18 points — missed a layup that would have given the Hogs the lead.
Oklahoma's Duke Miles grabbed the rebound, passed it ahead to Jalon Moore, and he slammed it home with less than a second left to ensure an Oklahoma win.
With the loss, Arkansas falls to 1-6 in league play. Here are some of HawgBeat's takeaways from Saturday's loss...
Nelly Davis breaks out
As mentioned above, Davis finished the game with 18 points, the most on either team. He wasn't necessarily the most efficient as he shot just 31%, but he also had four steals and was one of three Razorbacks to finish positive in the plus-minus box.This is the second game the Hogs have played without star point guard Boogie Fland, and it's the second game Davis has seen his role increase with the team. Beyond the box score, he looks more comfortable in his role and is playing with a lot more confidence than he has in previous games.
"I'm with him, and he's getting better,'" Arkansas head coach John Calipari said postgame. "There's still some breakdown stuff, but he's getting better. Got to quit thinking so much. And you know, he did some good things."
Second-half free throws told the story of the game
Arkansas lived at the free throw line in its win over Georgia, but it was the Sooners in the second half of Saturday's game who set up shop at the charity stripe to get the win.
The refs seemed to let a lot of physical play go in the first half, as the two teams shot a combined nine free throw attempts in the first 20 minutes. But in the second half, the referees got more involved with the whistle.
Let's be clear here — Arkansas lost this game because of poor execution in the second half that the Sooners took advantage of. But the fact is that Oklahoma shot 20 free throws in the final 20 minutes to Arkansas' 11, and they made the most of those opportunities with 16 makes.
The biggest free-throw gut punch Arkansas had to endure came in the second half. The Hogs had just taken a six-point lead, 50-44, and looked to be poised to run away with the win, until they fouled three-point shooters on back-to-back plays.
Sooners forward Luke Northweather hit the first three and guard Jeremiah Fears hit the latter to tie the game and erase any kind of momentum the Hogs had.
Big Z needs to get more minutes
Arkansas center Zvonimir Ivisic has put in two efficient games in a row and is playing at a higher level than his frontcourt counterpart Jonas Aidoo. The Croatia native finished with 10 points, hit two threes, had six rebounds and three blocks in 27 minutes Saturday night.
At this point, it may be time to start giving him an extra five to 10 minutes per game, at least based on their performances Saturday. Aidoo finished the game with no points, one rebound, no assists and a turnover, though it is worth noting he only played nine minutes in the contest.
"(Zvonimir) in a great frame of mind," Calipari said. "He’s got a great spirit about him right now. He’s taking responsibility versus trying to blame anybody. He’s taking responsibility and he’s working in practice, he’s spending the time you have to spend at this and it’s paying off."
Both Aidoo and Ivisic give the Razorbacks great length and shot-blocking ability, but Big Z has the ability to knock down shots from deep that Aidoo doesn't. For an Arkansas team that has struggled to shoot since SEC play started, that extra threat could be an added boost.
"I thought we needed rim protection because they were running downhill, and then we collapsed and they were throwing back for threes," Calipari said. "So I said, I'll put the shot blocker in there. And Z had three block shots and six rebounds and did all right."
