Advertisement
basketball Edit

Arkansas falls at No. 17 Baylor, 67-64

NOT A SUBSCRIBER? SIGN UP TODAY FOR ACCESS TO ALL OF HAWGBEAT'S PREMIUM CONTENT AND FEATURES

Despite a strong effort on the road, the Arkansas Razorbacks (14-7, 3-5 SEC) were unable to upset the No. 17 Baylor Bears (16-5, 5-3 Big 12) inside the Ferrell Center in Waco, Texas, as the Hogs fell to the Bears, 67-64, on Saturday.

Ricky Council IV's 25 points on 10-of-17 shooting from the field was not enough to overcome 15 turnovers and 14 second half foul calls credited to the Razorbacks.

Arkansas shot 50.9% from the field compared to just 33.9% from the Bears, but Baylor's 24 free throw attempts compared to just 11 from the Hogs proved to be the difference.

Davonte Davis added 16 points and four rebounds for the Razorbacks. Jalen Graham played key minutes and added four points, nine rebounds and he was a team-high plus-7 in his 25 minutes.

Arkansas has now put together back-to-back incredible first half defensive performances against LSU on Tuesday and Baylor on Saturday. The two teams combined to shoot 11-58 (19%) from the field over the two first halves of basketball.

Baylor outscored Arkansas 40-31 in the second half, and 13 of those points came at the charity stripe.

Here is a recap of Saturday's contest, which set Arkansas back to 0-5 in true road games this season.

By the first media timeout, the Bears held a 7-2 lead, benefited by four early fouls by the Hogs. LJ Cryer reached 10 points for the Bears with his second 3-pointer of the game just after the 13-minute mark. Davis responded with Arkansas' second three ball to make it a 14-8 Baylor lead.

Baylor's star freshman Keyonte George drained a shot from beyond the arc to extend the Bears' lead to 19-8. Arkansas held the Bears scoreless over the next 2:45 to cut the Baylor lead to six, but eight turnovers by the Hogs proved to be the difference at that point.

A missed free throw from Graham was tipped in by Black, who drew a foul and hit the ensuing free throw to make it a 20-18 Baylor lead with 7:15 to play. A jumper from Council tied the game up just 40 seconds later.

A 12-1 run by Arkansas ended when George drew an and-one at the 5:44 mark. Musselman didn't like the call of a blocking foul, and he drew a technical foul for voicing his frustration. Cryer hit the free throws from the technical, and George hit his one freebie to put Baylor up by five.

Graham knocked down a jumper to cut Baylor's lead to 27-26 at the final media timeout of the first half. Another jumper from Council gave the Hogs their first lead of the game, and on the ensuing Razorback possession, Davis drew an and-one to extend the lead to four.

A steal from Graham turned into a transition slam from Davis to silence the Baylor fans and give the Razorbacks a 33-27 lead with 1:30 left in the first half. Neither team could score before the buzzer went off, and the Hogs took an impressive 6-point lead into the locker room.

Council opened the second half with another made jumper, and Baylor ended a 13-0 Arkansas run with a layup from Jalen Bridges. After the awful shooting performance in the first half, the Bears made five of their first seven second half shots to trim the Arkansas lead to 40-37 at the under-16 timeout.

The Razorbacks recorded their seventh team foul at the 14:38 mark in the second half to put Baylor in the bonus. Less than three minutes later, George knocked down a free throw to complete a 3-point play and put Baylor ahead 45-44.

By the under-8 timeout, Arkansas controlled a 1-point advantage, but four Hogs had at least three fouls at that point.

Makhi Mitchell was whistled for his fifth foul of the game, sending him to the bench and Adam Flagler to the free throw line. Flagler hit both shots to tie the game at 53-53 with 4:51 to play.

Baylor went on a 9-2 run out of the under-4 media timeout to create much-needed separation. Council hit a pair of free throws and then hit a jumper at right at the charity stripe with 28 seconds to play to cut Baylor's lead to 62-59.

Jordan Walsh fouled out for the Hogs with 26 seconds to go, resulting in one made free throw from Bridges. Seven seconds later, Davis converted a 3-point play to make it a 63-62 Baylor lead.

Cryer knocked down two free throws with 10 seconds to play to make it a 3-point game. Davis cut inside and knocked down a relatively uncontested layup with just under five seconds left.

A pair of free throws from George made it 67-64 Baylor, and Davis was immediately fouled on the inbound pass to take out the option of a made three for the Hogs. A missed free throw from Davis was tipped out to a wide open Joseph Pinion, who couldn't make the three at the buzzer.

Up next, Arkansas will host Texas A&M for a 6 p.m. CT tipoff Tuesday inside Bud Walton Arena. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

Advertisement

Box Score

**JOIN THE CONVERSATION WITH ARKANSAS FANS ON THE TROUGH, HAWGBEAT'S PREMIUM MESSAGE BOARD**

Advertisement