HawgBeat - Takeaways, notes, stats from Arkansas' 65-63 win over South Carolina
HawgBeat provides takeaways, observations, notes, quotes and stats from Arkansas' 65-63 win at South Carolina.
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The Arkansas Razorbacks (16-7, 5-5) reached .500 in SEC play with a very narrow 65-63 victory over the South Carolina Gamecocks (8-15, 1-9) on Saturday in Columbia.
After gaining a 13-point advantage less than three minutes into the second half, the Razorbacks let the Gamecocks climb back into the game. South Carolina held a lead with just over four minutes to play, but strong defense down the stretch propelled the Hogs to their fourth straight conference victory.
Here's HawgBeat's takeaways, observations, notes, quotes, stats, efficiency ratings and much more from Saturday's game:
Getting over the hump
The Razorbacks entered Saturday's matchup against South Carolina with an 0-5 record in road games this season. It wasn't easy, but the Hogs finally got a true road win and they've won four straight SEC games.
"It's hard to win on the road," Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman said. "Both teams were desperate for a win. We were desperate for a road win. South Carolina was desperate for a home win. It continues to be a learning experience for much of our guys, and I do think we are playing much better basketball having won four games in a row in league play."
With 17:42 remaining in the game, Arkansas possessed a game-best 13-point lead and it was shaping up to be another blowout loss for the Gamecocks, who are now 1-9 in conference play.
When South Carolina took a 59-58 lead with 4:03 left, it looked like the Razorbacks might blow another second half lead after doing so against Missouri and Vanderbilt last month.
As the Gamecocks trailed by one with 19 seconds left, head coach Lamont Paris asked for a timeout to rally his troops and draw up one last play. Musselman had the chance to draw something up for his team as well, and his plan worked better.
The goal was to not let talented scorers Meechie Johnson or GG Jackson touch the ball. On that second-to-last possession, forward Hayden Brown missed a reverse layup, and all but put the nail in the coffin.
Though Davonte Davis missed a free throw that South Carolina rebounded with 2.3 seconds left, Musselman drew up another great defensive game plan to not allow the Gamecocks a miracle last second game-winner.
"Really proud of some of the defensive stuff that happened," Musselman said. "Obviously, when they went on that scoring run right around the four-minute mark, we need to play better defense. We gave up two easy threes, and when you give up two threes that is six quick points in a game that we never led by more than 13."
One key to the late game defensive stops was moving Davis to guard Meechie Johnson, who scored 17 points and hit five threes in the second half. Once Davis — who is known as one of the better defenders in the SEC — moved over to guard Johnson, things changed.
"We switched Devo on Johnson and he was all over him," Ricky Council IV said. "I think he was still hitting tough shots, but Devo wasn’t going to let any of that get off. He put me on GG, and I was determined not to let him score as well. That was key, for sure."
Johnson didn't score a single point in the final 5:09 of the game, and a good bit of that can be attributed to Davis' efforts.
Good Graham, bad Graham
Graham checked in at the 13:17 mark in the first half, and things went nearly flawless for him after that. He got just about anything he wanted in the paint, as he knocked down each of his first six shots.
The "Spin Cycle" put his post moves on display often, and he finished with a game-high 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting in the first 20 minutes of the game. Graham credited his success to getting in the gym more and working on his touch shots.
"I ain’t going to lie, I’m always going to try to score, try to attack," Graham said. "That’s my mentality. If I feel like I can take somebody one-on-one, that’s what I’m going to do. Today, I just felt like they weren’t really doubling and I feel like I can beat pretty much anybody one-on-one if they give me the opportunity by guarding me straight up."
Graham's second half performance was a different story, as he scored just four points and had one rebound in 11 minutes. The lack of defensive rebounds from Graham stood out more than anything else to Musselman.
"The bottom line is Jalen Graham can really score the ball, but we need him to defensive rebound," Musselman said. "Defensive rebounding was a problem tonight. They had 13 offensive rebounds, and Jalen played 21 minutes and had one defensive rebound."
A total of 16 points from Graham was a team-high for the Razorbacks. He also had a team-best 116 offensive rating in the game, according to KenPom.
His ability to score, specifically in the post, is elite. If Graham could piece together his all-around game, as he also tied for a team-high three turnovers, he might be able to see the court more often for the Hogs.
"People respect his offensive ability, but if you look at his turnovers per minute and defensive rebounds per minute...that's a big part of how we can get him on the floor a little bit more because certainly from an offensive scoring standpoint Jalen is a really special offensive player," Musselman said.
Threevo Davis
Davis' defense has always been a staple of his game, but his offensive output the last eight games has been nothing short of incredible. The native of Jacksonville has hit 20-of-45 (44.4%) threes over that span, and he's averaging 16.6 points per contest as well.
"His three-point shooting is really what has become extremely valuable to us, and he's doing a great job of not shooting the threes off the bounce," Musselman said. "For the most part he's shooting them with his feet set. So, really happy with the confidence level that he has shown. He's the only guy that made a three for us tonight."
Prior to SEC play, Davis had hit just five 3-pointers on the season. He's now hit 27 shots from behind the arc, and it's only a matter of time until it opens up his offensive game even more.
"When people crowd him because he's got really good ability to get downhill, I think that's going to open up some more dribble-drive angles for him as well," Musselman said.
Graham said that Davis is a "big-time" player that the team needs each game.
"He does it on both ends," Graham said. "It’s something we need every game from him — him making threes then playing D. Three-and-D, just like the NBA wants a guy like that. We’re just glad that we have him.
"How ferocious he is on defense, how hard he plays on defense, we need a guy like that every game. He’s always been there guarding the best players and just shutting them down."
A win is a win
On paper, the Razorbacks should've dominated the Gamecocks all game long. Though it ended up being more of a hard-fought win than they might have expected, a road win in the SEC is always good to get.
"The last couple games I remember, in all the close games we ended up losing," Council said. "Four in a row. We’re on a hot streak. We’ve just got to keep it going at Kentucky Tuesday. We go in there, that’s two road wins. That would be good to get that one and then we come back home versus Mississippi State."
The word desperation was used by Council to describe how the Hogs beat South Carolina. When the going got tough, they knew a loss to the Gamecocks was something they couldn't have on the resume.
"I mean, we had games that were must-win, but this was a must-win," Council said. "They’re one of the bottom teams in the league. They’re still a good team, but they’re one of the bottom teams in the league.
We knew we couldn’t lose this game because we were already on a hot streak. This was going to be a big game going into March as far as seeding or even making it."
Even when the Gamecocks took the lead with less than five minutes left, the lowest Arkansas' win probability got to was 62.9% on KenPom.
Though there are still some things that need to be cleaned up, such as limiting opponents offensive rebounding and cutting down on turnovers, Musselman said he hopes his team will enjoy this one for a bit with another quick turnaround.
"I hope the players enjoy the win tonight," Musselman said. "Hopefully we'll get back safely, but certainly the preparation for Kentucky will begin immediately upon ending this press conference."
Notes
~ Arkansas’ starting lineup was Anthony Black – Davonte Davis – Ricky Council – Makhel Mitchell – Makhi Mitchell for the second-straight time, third time overall.
~ Jordan Walsh was the first Razorback sub.
~ Davonte Davis was the only Razorback player to make a three. Only three other players attempted a three in the game — Black, Council and Walsh, who combined to go 0-of-5 from deep.
~ Arkansas' defensive efficiency rating against South Carolina was 101.8, which marks just the third time this season that the Hogs won a game with the defensive efficiency rating being worse than 100.
~ The Razorbacks are now 13-2 this season when holding opponents to less than 70 points.
~ Saturday's contest ended a three-game streak of Arkansas holding opponents to less than 40% shooting from the field.
~ South Carolina is now the only team that Arkansas doesn't have a losing record against in away games. The Hogs have an 8-8 record against the Gamecocks in Columbia.
Box Score
Up Next
The Razorbacks will travel to Lexington, Kentucky, to face the Kentucky Wildcats on Tuesday for an 8 p.m. CT tipoff. The game will be televised on ESPN.
