The Arkansas Razorbacks do not lack grit. That much was plain to see in Saturday’s 68-67 loss at Alabama. After trailing by 13 points on two different occasions in the second half, the Hogs rallied for a chance to win the ballgame as the final seconds ticked off the clock.
JD Notae, the SEC’s leading scorer who missed all but four minutes of the first half thanks to a pair of early fouls, dribbled right trying to find an opening behind the 3-point line. The senior got off a poor shot, a controversial call awarded Alabama the ball (on replay it looked as though JD Davison knocked the ball from Au’Diese Toney’s hands), and the 9-game win streak for Arkansas came to an end after a desperation shot at the buzzer narrowly missed its mark.
Matt Jones from WholeHogSports paints the picture well in his game story:
After Jahvon Quinerly missed the front end of a one-and-one with 3.4 seconds remaining, Davonte Davis’ half-court heave bounced off the rim for the Razorbacks. Arkansas coach Eric Musselman said he never considered taking a timeout after the defensive rebound.
“I think when you get something in that scramble-type situation, you let them play,” he said. “We always talk about the last play but…we should have shot free throws better. There are a lot of things you can pinpoint tonight and a lot of areas for us to try to get better and clean up as well.”
It was a rather sloppy game with both teams struggling to keep possession. Alabama turned the ball over 24 times while the Hogs gave it away 16 times. Neither team shot it well from range (both under 30% from three), but Arkansas was particularly out of sync on two-point field goal attempts. The Razorbacks shot only 32.7% on regular field goals including several misses near the rim.
The Hogs have a quick turnaround with the a trip to Missouri looming on Tuesday. The Tigers will look to avenge a blowout loss they suffered at Bud Walton Arena on January 12 when the Razorbacks posted an 87-43 victory. It was the win over Missouri that started their 9-game winning streak that just ended. Perhaps the trip to Columbia on Tuesday will give Arkansas the chance to begin another streak to close out the SEC slate.