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NORTH LITTLE ROCK — Luckily for Arkansas, Mason Jones listens to his teammates.

After missing his first three attempts beyond the arc Saturday night, the junior guard got trigger shy and passed up an open look during the second half. You’ve got to shoot that, his teammates said.

With that in the back of his mind, Jones didn’t hesitate to launch the game-tying three-pointer and then hit an off-balance three that put the Razorbacks up for good to complete their 72-68 comeback win over Valparaiso.

“That was just a little heat check,” Jones said with a smile. “To be honest, a heat check at the end of the game is kind of bad, but I trust myself and I trust my craft and I'm just happy.”

It was still a one-possession game, though, when the Crusaders had the ball in the hands of their best player, Javon Freeman-Liberty, on the other end of the court. The star guard actually beat Jimmy Whitt Jr. off the dribble and went up for a dunk, but he was rejected with a vicious block by Adrio Bailey to keep it a three-point game.

“When I saw Jimmy get beat, it was me, him and the rim and he had to meet me there,” Bailey said. “I was getting dunked on or that's my block.”

That sequence - Jones’ two shots and Bailey’s block - lasted about 40 seconds and happened in the game’s final minute and a half, whipping the crowd of 15,630 inside Simmons Bank Arena into a frenzy.

It was head coach Eric Musselman’s first time experiencing a game in central Arkansas and he was impressed, saying there weren’t many better college basketball environments and crediting the fans for willing them to victory.

“If we’re playing in an empty gym, we might not win that game,” Musselman said. “I can tell everybody in North Little Rock and anybody that came to the game, if we’re playing outdoors somewhere five-on-five, we don’t win without that loud crowd tonight.”

Those fans had plenty of reasons to get loud throughout the game, but likely thought they would witness a comfortable win considering how it started.

The Razorbacks jumped out to an 18-5 lead in the first eight minutes, highlighted by a thunderous dunk by Bailey that brought the crowd to its feet for the first time.

“When I set the little flare screen and (Jones) didn’t shoot it, in my head, I was trying to break the goal,” Bailey said. “That was going through my head.”

However, a couple of calls went against Arkansas - Jones had a three-pointer waved off because of a travel and was called for a charge on what could have been a three-point play - and it went more than five and a half minutes without a field goal.

Meanwhile, Valparaiso chipped away at its deficit with an 11-1 run to get back into the game and eventually took the lead when Freeman-Liberty knocked down a three-pointer with two minutes left in the half - its first lead since 1-0 in the opening minute.

Even after Musselman received a technical following a play on which Bailey was knocked into the scorer’s table, the Razorbacks had a chance to take the final shot of the half in a tie game. Instead, Jeantal Cylla threw the ball away and the Crusaders got a fast break layup to take a 34-32 lead into halftime.

That lead changed hands seven times in the first four minutes of the second half before Valparaiso regained it with an 8-0 run. Back-to-back three-pointers by Donovan Clay and Freeman-Liberty put the Crusaders up 59-51 - their largest lead of the night - and forced Musselman to call a rare timeout.

The first-year coach used the opportunity to settle his team down, but also discuss strategy for the final 7:23.

“We changed the way we ran our middle pick-and-roll where we had actually Jimmy and Adrio or Reggie - whoever was in at the time - kind of run up and set a decoy pick-and-roll, then Isaiah followed it up with the pick-and-roll, instead of just having Isaiah and Mason up there setting it,” Musselman said. “We tried to add a little bit more movement in the middle pick and roll with those guys.”

That immediately led to a bucket, as Isaiah Joe knocked down a three-pointer out of the timeout to reenergize the crowd and get Arkansas back into it. Including that bucket, the Razorbacks outscored Valparaiso 21-9 from that point on.

“I thought that we played really, really great basketball the firsts four and a half minutes, and I thought we played really excellent basketball the last seven and a half minutes,” Musselman said. “For whatever reason, the last game before a break is not easy for teams.”

As it has all season, Arkansas hung its hat on defense. Five of its 16 forced turnovers came in the final seven minutes. Two were committed by Freeman-Liberty, including the one that led to Jones’ go-ahead three-pointer.

Even when the Crusaders didn’t cough it up, they consistently got late into the shot clock and usually had to settle for a less-than-ideal shot.

“They didn’t really get any good looks,” Musselman said. “Gordon hit a 3 off a slip, but we were going to live with that. We did not want (Freeman-Liberty) to end the game with a shot. That was just a philosophical thing that we discussed in the last two timeouts.”

Once the Razorbacks took the lead in the final minute, they were able to put it away at the free throw line - even though they started the game 10 of 20 from the charity stripe.

Joe and Jones each made a pair to keep it a two-possession margin and give them 21 and 20 points, respectively, while securing the victory.

“He’s a big shot-maker, that’s why he has the ball in his hands,” Musselman said about Jones. “And he’s a great foul shooter and Isaiah’s a great foul shooter, so it’s no secret that those two guys are going to be involved in any late-game situation type play that we need.”

It wasn’t a particularly pretty win over a Valparaiso team that came into the game with a 7-5 record and losses to St. Louis, Eastern Michigan and Charlotte, but it sends Arkansas into an eight-day break on a high note.

“It wouldn't have been a very good Christmas, I can tell you that, at least not in my household if we would have lost - if I would have been allowed in,” Musselman said. “But look, we're 10-1 and we didn't play as well as we have played for the most of the year, but we still won a game.”

The Razorbacks will have three days off before reporting back to Fayetteville on Christmas Day to prepare for Indiana. They’ll take on the Hoosiers at 5 p.m. CT next Sunday in a game that will be played inside historic Assembly Hall and televised on the Big Ten Network.