Key takeaways, box score from Arkansas' first-round win over Vermont

It’s a March cliche, but Arkansas truly survived and advanced Thursday night.

A turnover in the closing seconds was overturned in their favor and JD Notae knocked down a pair of free throws to ice the Razorbacks’ 75-71 first-round win over Vermont at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, N.Y.

Despite leading for the final 9.5 minutes of the game, Arkansas couldn’t put the Catamounts away and a Ben Shungu 3-pointer with 12 seconds left actually pulled them within two.

The Razorbacks got the ball in bounded to Notae, who was immediately double teamed in the corner. He lost control of the ball and it appeared to bounced off his face before going out of bounds for a turnover that would have given Vermont an opportunity to tie or take the lead with 9 seconds remaining.

However, the officials went to the monitor and — unlike a questionable call about a minute earlier — they overturned it because replays showed the ball was touched by Vermont. It was a relief to Notae, who nearly committed his second turnover inside the final minute.

“I thought it was out on me, honestly,” Notae said. “I'm not going to cap to you. (But they) gave us the ball back.”

Given a second chance, Notae got to the free throw line to seal the victory.

That capped a hard-fought win for Arkansas, which avoided the same fate as the likes of Kentucky, Iowa and others who suffered first-round upsets on the first full day of the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

“You know coming in that every possession, we are going to have to fight,” Stanley Umude said. “I don't think we came in relaxed or anything. We came in ready to go, and I think the upsets going around, it's March, so we just have to be ready.”

Going to the locker room with a 34-27 lead thanks to ending the first half on a 7-0 run, Arkansas looked like it might cruise to an easy win, especially when Notae opened the half with a layup.

That wasn’t the case, though, as Vermont immediately answered with a 12-0 run to actually regain the lead. That was the first of eight lead changes in a six-minute span during which neither team led by more than one possession.

“We knew Vermont was going to make a run, we just didn't know when,” Davonte Davis said. “They're a great team, like Coach Muss said. Once they make their run, we have to stop it and make our own run, and I think we did that.”

A pair of free throws by Umude put Arkansas up for good with 9:34 remaining, but it was far from over.

As they have so many times this season, the Razorbacks relied on the free throw line to finally finish off Vermont. They didn’t make a shot after Notae’s jumper put them up by nine with 4:25 left, but did go 8 of 10 from the charity stripe over that stretch.

“Clutch free-throw shooting has been very big for us all year,” Musselman said. “I mean, I feel like we've done a great job at the free-throw line.”

Here are a few other key takeaways from Arkansas’ first-round win over the Catamounts…

Big Night for Umude

When Musselman peeked into the locker room a few hours before the game, he saw several Razorbacks on their phones, killing time as their tip time kept getting pushed back.

Even though it was well before the 90-minute warning when the players turn in their phones, one who wasn’t messing with his device was Umude. Instead, the South Dakota transfer was staring at the screen playing Vermont tape.

“Before the game, he was kind of non-emotional, laser-focused,” Musselman said. “To sit here and say that I had some feeling that he was going to have a great (game) -- I really didn't know because it was his first tournament.”

A great game is exactly what Arkansas got from Umude in his NCAA Tournament debut, though. He never came off the floor and scored a game-high 21 points on 6 of 11 shooting. He was also a perfect 6 of 6 at the free throw line and nearly notched a double-double, grabbing nine rebounds. For good measure, Umude added three assists and two blocks.