Eric Musselman wanted toughness and heart. Arkansas showed it, even if it was quite ugly.
Whew.
Eric Musselman had begged his team, practically, for toughness the last two weeks. They showed it Wednesday.
The 20th-ranked Razorbacks needed two overtimes, but beat Stanford in the first round of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in Bahamas, 77-74. They advanced to the semifinals to play Memphis at 4 p.m. CT tomorrow.
Arkansas held Stanford without a field goal until the final 45 seconds of the final overtime to seal the win. Incidentally, the Cardinal didn’t make a field goal in the first overtime until the final 30 seconds, though Benny Gealer’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer forced a second five-minute frame.
That was a flip of the first 40 minutes as Arkansas was atrocious shooting the ball, knocking down just 30% from the floor then. The Razorbacks won, though, because of that toughness. Arkansas grabbed 52 total rebounds, including 21 offensive, and outscored Stanford on second-chance points, 21-7.
The offensive difficulties left the Razorbacks behind for most of the game, but never terribly. Devo Davis tied the game with 6.8 seconds left when he made a pair of free throws he attempted after attacking the hoop in an effort to tie the game with a field goal. Jared Bynum’s last-second 3-pointer attempt clanged off the back iron to set up overtime.
Before that, it looked like the Hogs were toast. They tied the game with 2:04 left when Tramon Mark buried a 3-pointer from the wing. But Spencer Jones, who led all scorers with 27 points, hit one for Stanford on the other end 34 seconds later to give the edge going into the final moments.
Jones went 5 of 10 from beyond the arc, whereas Arkansas made exactly that amount from range.
Mark was the only Razorbacks player in double figures until overtime, scoring 25. Brazile reached double figures in the extra frame, finishing with 14 points to go with his career-high 17 boards.
