Arkansas saw a 15-point lead evaporate in the second half and extended its losing streak to six games Tuesday night.
Despite leading for most of the game, the Razorbacks fell to No. 4 Kentucky 70-66 at Rupp Arena. They had an 11-point advantage at halftime and stretched it to 15 early in the second half before the Wildcats stormed back and held on in the final seconds.
From the start, Arkansas clogged the middle of the floor and forced Kentucky into uncomfortable possessions.
The Wildcats hit just two of their first six shots and turned the ball over twice before the first media timeout, but held a 7-5 lead after Gabe Osabuohien turned the ball over underneath his own basket, leading to an easy PJ Washington dunk.
After a quick back-and-forth, Arkansas used a 7-0 run to take an early 15-11 lead and forced John Calipari into a timeout at the 11:53 mark in the first half. Isaiah Joe had nine of the Hogs’ points at that time, hitting three shots from deep while Kentucky continued to struggled with ball control in the half-court.
That run ballooned into a 15-2 run thanks to a Desi Sills three and a Mason Jones contact layup.
Once the flood of Kentucky turnovers dried off, the lead-extending run came to a stop. Arkansas continued to suffocate the Wildcats inside and maintained its lead despite a poor shooting performance. Coupled with Kentucky's lack of shot opportunities, the game was heading to a sub-60-point halftime score.
When Daniel Gafford subbed in at the 3:56 mark, though, the pace of the game nearly doubled. That worked out in the Hogs’ favor, as they got a pick-and-roll dunk from Gafford followed by a Joe three to kick start an 11-point four-minute stretch.
An inside shot by Gafford in the final moments of the half gave Arkansas a 39-28 lead heading into the locker room. Joe had 16 points in the first half alone off of four three-pointers.
Arkansas forced Kentucky into 12 turnovers while coughing the ball up just once. The result was a halftime 14-2 points off turnovers advantage. The Wildcats hit 5 of 10 three pointers, but shot just 40.9 percent from inside the arc in the first half.
Arkansas’ half-ending scoring burst momentarily spilled into the second half thanks to back-to-back Sills threes. Those two buckets built a 15-point lead, the Razorbacks’ biggest of the night.
Six Kentucky points in 1:26 brought both the Wildcats and the crowd back into the game.
Arkansas didn’t score for a 3-minute, 44-second stretch, but Joe put an end to the drought with trey ball No. 5. Kentucky’s Tyler Herro buried a pair of threes in response before Mason Jones got his own long ball in to quiet the crowd.
The flurry resulted in a 51-44 Arkansas lead at the under-12 media timeout.
That lead continued to slim, however, until it was gone entirely. Kentucky forced the Razorbacks into long, fruitless possessions while protecting the rock on the other end.
With 8:15 remaining, a Washington hook shot tied the game during a six-plus minute stretch without an Arkansas point. Just over a minute later, Herro gave Kentucky the lead with a three.
After some basket trading, the teams hit the final media stoppage with the Wildcats holding a 60-57 lead.
Over the next few minutes, Arkansas would miss four consecutive free throws. Yet, it found itself down just three after Gafford got the fourth of four consecutive one-footers to go to bring the score to 63-60 with 58 seconds remaining.
Gafford finished with 14 points and eight rebounds in 23 minutes.
Jones gave the Hogs a chance with a three sandwiched between Kentucky free throws. Following an apparent travel before the inbound pass that the refs missed, Jones deflected the a pass that appeared to be last touched by the Wildcats, but it stayed with Kentucky after the review.
The officials also appeared to miss a Herro elbow to Joe before the final inbounds pass that would have given Arkansas free throws and the ball. Ultimately, a pair of Kentucky free throws ended the game.
Jones finished with nine points for Arkansas, while Joe scored a team-high 19 points - with only three coming in the second half.
The Razorbacks shot just 9 of 29 (31.0 percent) in the second half to finish with a 37.7 field goal percentage for the game. Arkansas was outscored 42-27 after halftime.
Herro led all scorers with 29 points for a Kentucky team that had a drastically different finish than it started. The Wildcats shot 54.5 percent from the floor in the final 20 minutes, including 56.3 percent on two-point shots.
The loss dropped Arkansas to 14-14 overall and 5-10 in SEC play. It will attempt to get back above .500 when it hosts Ole Miss at noon Saturday. That game will be televised on the SEC Network and the Razorbacks will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of their 1994 national championship game.
BOX SCORE
SUBSCRIBE to HawgBeat and get access to exclusive prospect interviews, the best recruiting network in the industry, inside scoops on recruiting and team news, videos, podcasts and much more.
Join the discussion on THE TROUGH, the Arkansas Rivals premium message board for thousands of Hog fans.
