No. 15 Arkansas upset by Vanderbilt, 97-84
After taking an eight-point lead and a lot of momentum into the halftime locker room, the No. 15 Arkansas Razorbacks gave up 63 second half points to Vanderbilt, and they fell to the Commodores 97-84 Saturday inside Memorial Gymnasium.
Arkansas controlled the first half, thanks in part to a sequence of a shooting foul on Vandy, a flagrant foul that took Ezra Manjon out of the game and a technical foul on head coach Jerry Stackhouse. The Hogs were awarded seven free throws when the dust settled, but it was all for naught after the second half performance.
At one point in final 20 minutes, the Commodores went on a 20-3 run over nearly seven minutes of play. Vanderbilt made 69.2% of its second half shots from the field and it made 21 of its 23 free throw attempts in the final 20 minutes.
Anthony Black and Ricky Council IV combined for 44 of Arkansas' points on the afternoon. Though Arkansas' offense performed well, it allowed 97 points to the 9th-best scoring team in the SEC. Vanderbilt scored 26 points more than its average (71) on the season.
Here's a recap of the Hogs' fourth loss in conference play, and fifth of the season.
Neither team scored until Vandy's Tyrin Lawrence slammed the ball down with nobody near him at the 18:21 mark. Makhi Mitchell scored Arkansas' first basket with a layup on the next Razorback possession.
By the first media timeout, Lawrence had seven of Vanderbilt's eight points, and the Commodores led Arkansas by two.
At the 13:51 mark, the Commodores' leading scorer Liam Robbins drew his second foul and he was sent to the bench.
Council and Makhi Mitchell combined for 12 of Arkansas' 14 points, as the Hogs trailed Vanderbilt 15-14 right out of the under-12 media break. Moments later, Makhi Mitchell drew his second foul, bringing his brother Makhel Mitchell in to replace him.
Both teams went back and forth, each scoring on five combined possessions, and the game was even at 22-22 with 7:22 to play in the first half.
At the 5:57 mark, a double technical was called on Arkansas' Kamani Johnson and Vandy's Jordan Wright after some extracurricular activity went down between the two teams. Johnson was hit with a flagrant foul, and Vandy made a pair of free throws to trim the Arkansas lead to 27-26.
A three from Black at the 2:53 mark put Arkansas up 32-26, its largest lead of the game to that point. Council drilled a deep shot of his own on the next possession to put the Hogs ahead by nine.
Vandy countered with a pair of 3-pointers, and after a layup from Black, he drew a foul, stepped over Vanderbilt's Quentin Millora-Brown and then was pushed from behind by Manjon, who was ejected from the game for the push. Stackhouse received a technical for his reaction, awarding Arkansas a total of seven free throws.
After all the free throws, Arkansas held a 42-32 lead with 49 seconds to go in the first half. Vandy hit a pair of freebies with 16 second to go, and the Hogs took a 42-34 lead into the locker room.
The chippy play continued to start the second half, but the Hogs maintained their lead. Makhi Mitchell drained his first three of the season at the 17:37 mark, but Vandy went on a 5-point run to cut the Arkansas lead to five.
The Commodores outscored Arkansas 19-12 from the start of the second half to the first media timeout. The Razorbacks led 54-53 with just over 14 minutes to play, and Vanderbilt was getting away with a lot of extra contact.
A trey from Wright gave Vanderbilt its first lead since the 9:17 mark in the first half, and a layup from Wright gave the Commodores their largest lead of the game (five) with just under 12 minutes to play.
After Arkansas trimmed the deficit to two with a three from Black, Vanderbilt extended its run to 16-3 to take a 10-point lead and force an Eric Musselman timeout with 8:28 remaining in the game.
Arkansas stuck around, but the Commodores continued to strike on the offensive end. By the final media timeout, Vandy held a firm 78-68 advantage over the Razorbacks.
Back-to-back 3-point plays from Davis and Joseph Pinion allowed Arkansas to trim the deficit to seven points with 2:43 to play.
Any offense from Arkansas was countered by little-to-no defense on the other end, as Vanderbilt made 13 free throws in the final three minutes.
The loss set the Hogs back to 1-4 in SEC play, and put Vanderbilt above .500 on the season.
Up next, Arkansas will travel to No. 20 Missouri for an 8 p.m. CT tipoff Tuesday at Mizzou Arena in Columbia, Missouri. The game will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
Box Score
