As has been the case many times this season, the Arkansas Razorbacks (16-11, 5-9 SEC) flipped the switch in the second half to take down the No. 15 Missouri Tigers (20-7, 9-5 SEC), 92-85, on Saturday night at Bud Walton Arena.
Down 48-41 at the end of the first half, Arkansas let Missouri take control of the boards with a 20-8 advantage and connect for eight threes in the first half. Caleb Grill, Tamar Bates, Marques Warrick and Jacob Crews each hit two in the first half.
"If you give a kid that can really shoot and you’re late putting up your hand, don’t keep your hand up like to say, ‘my hand was up’, no, no it was not," Arkansas head coach John Calipari said postgame. "He had a free look at the rim. Second thing is, if he gets it off, you’re wrong, so don’t come over and say anything to me. You’re wrong. He has to bounce the ball, and if he doesn’t bounce the ball, then you’re wrong and you shouldn’t be in the game."
ESPN's Bracketology gave Arkansas a 31% chance to make the NCAA Tournament before the game. The win increased those chances to 42%, but a loss would have decreased them to 21%. It's not too much of a stretch to say this game was a must-win for the Hogs, so something had to change coming out of the break. The message at halftime from Calipari was simple.
"When we got into the locker room, Coach emphasized no more threes and get more rebounds, box out and get hits, and we did that for them," Arkansas guard Johnell Davis said postgame.
The Razorbacks responded exactly as their head coach had hoped. In the second half, Arkansas won the rebound battle, 20-15, and though it gave up eight offensive rebounds, it kept Missouri at bay with suffocating defense. The Hogs ran the Tigers off the three-point line and forced Grill, who had 13 points in the first half, to miss every one of the seven shots he took in the second half.
Missouri did hit a few threes in the final minutes of the game, but for the most part, the Tigers went ice cold. They shot 4-of-17 from deep in the final 20 minutes and didn't hit a three until there were 5:42 minutes left in the game. By then, the Hogs had pushed ahead by multiple possessions, and though the Tigers threatened, they never cut the lead to fewer than five points.
The Razorbacks gained that lead because they got hot from deep in the second half. They combined to go 5-for-8 from distance with two makes from Davis and one each from Karter Knox, D.J. Wagner and Zvonimir Ivisic.
"You know, we’ve been close, but today I broke out the ‘refuse to lose’," Calipari said. "I don’t care what you do, how you do it, refuse to lose. When it’s late in the game, refuse to lose. We had timeouts, we called them instead of throwing the ball away."
The Razorbacks will need to continue that "refuse to lose" mentality through the rest of the season. Arkansas is in good position to make the NCAA Tournament, but it will have to finish strong.
"We’re 4-3 the last seven (games)," Calipari said. "We lost to the 1-team, the 2-team and the 6 or 7-team. That’s who we lost to, and (Missouri) was a top-10 team. If they beat us today, they probably were eight or nine. So, that was a big-time win, but you know what, now we’ve got to finish. Yes, we’ve won four of seven. 4-3, let’s keep going now. Good win, though."
Up next, Arkansas will host the Texas Longhorns on Wednesday night at Bud Walton Arena. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. and the game will air on ESPN2.
