Key takeaways, box score from Arkansas' 75-74 loss to Vanderbilt

FAYETTEVILLE — Vanderbilt tried to give it away in the closing seconds, but Arkansas couldn’t take it and suffered a disappointing loss Tuesday night.

A missed 3-pointer by JD Notae at the buzzer capped a frantic final minute in which the Razorbacks squandered multiple chances and ultimately lost to the Commodores 75-74 inside Bud Walton Arena.

It was Arkansas’ fourth loss in five games after starting the season 9-0 and snapped the team’s seven-game winning streak against Vanderbilt. The Razorbacks are now 0-2 in SEC play for the first time since 2013-14

“I thought we had a lot of clean looks,” head coach Eric Musselman said. “It’s kind of been how it’s rolled with us for the last four or five games.”

In a one-possession game with about a minute left, Arkansas got a stop, but the Commodores grabbed an offensive board and turned it into points, as Rodney Chatman knocked down a 3-pointer with 45 seconds left to put them up six.

Seemingly in control of the game, that’s when Vanderbilt’s series of mistakes started. A few seconds after the 3, Scotty Pippen Jr. fouled out and Notae knocked down both free throws. On the other end, Chatman made just 1 of 2 free throws with 26 seconds remaining.

With a five-point lead, it looked like the Commodores might give Notae a free path to the basket for a layup, but he was fouled by Chatman and converted the three-point play. That made it a two-point game and prompted a timeout by Vanderbilt head coach Jerry Stackhouse.

On the ensuing inbound play, Chris Lykes stole the ball from Chatman under the basket, missed a point-blank attempt and was fouled after grabbing the offensive rebound. At the stripe with a chance to tie it up, the Miami (Fla.) transfer made the first - his 21st in a row and 32nd in 32 attempts inside the final three minutes of a game - but then missed the second that would have tied the game at 75-75.

Incredibly, the 5-foot-7 guard managed to track down his own missed shot, though, and kicked it out to Jaxson Robinson for an open 3-pointer from the right wing, but it didn’t fall.

The Razorbacks had to foul when Vanderbilt got the rebound with 9.2 seconds left, but the Commodores once again left the door open when Tyrin Lawrence missed both free throws. Arkansas quickly pushed the ball down the floor and Stanley Umude’s potential game-winning layup was blocked.

The ball went out of bounds with just 1.1 seconds remaining and Musselman called a timeout to draw up a play that resulted in Notae getting a pretty good look at the buzzer, but it didn’t fall.

“We don't want to be in that position, obviously, but I think Jaxson got a good look,” Umude said. “I had a layup that I should have finished and then JD got a good look, too. So we'll live with that and we just got to keep working to get better.”

It was an appropriate ending to a back-and-forth game that neither team led by double digits and featured 16 lead changes.

Here are a few other key takeaways from Arkansas’ loss to Vanderbilt on Tuesday…

First 5 Minutes

While the final minute will likely be dissected by fans and the focus of highlights, Musselman pointed to the first five minutes of each half as the difference in the game.

Arkansas actually got off to such an ugly start that the third-year coach called a rare timeout just 72 seconds in, with his team trailing 5-0. It seemed like the team responded well, though, as it quickly tied it up.

The Razorbacks eventually took the lead and hung on to it for the final 9:29 of the first half. They even led by as many as nine late in the half. However, Pippen scored four points to make it a 40-35 margin at halftime.

Vanderbilt erased the rest of that lead in a matter of a couple of minutes, scoring the first six points out of the break for the first of nine lead changes in the half.