No. 9 Razorbacks rally to beat Oklahoma 88-78
TULSA, Okla. — After going back and forth for the first four minutes of the second half, Oklahoma and No. 9 Arkansas found themselves locked in a one-possession game Saturday. When Anthony Black picked off an inbound pass after a basket and sent it to Nick Smith Jr. for a devastating dunk, the Sooners could not recover. The nine-second sequence produced four points, which set the Hogs on the path to an 88-78 victory, their ninth in 10 games to begin the season.
Smith and Ricky Council IV led the way offensively, accounting for more than half of Arkansas’ points. The former’s 21 were the result of shooting 8-16 with a triple and four free throws, and the latter’s 26 led the team for the fifth time this season.
In the first game following Trevon Brazile's torn ACL, freshman Jordan Walsh stepped up in his absence. The McDonald's All-American logged 12 points in 31 minutes, including a pair of 3-pointers.
Here is more on how the Razorbacks took down the Sooners:
Makhi Mitchell won the tip-off and laid it in for the first points of the game 13 seconds later. The first four minutes featured six lead changes, and the Hogs led 9-8 at the first media timeout.
Smith put a stop to a 7-0 Sooners run with a layup at the 14:05 mark, but they continued to devastate the Hogs from beyond the arc. They sank three of their first four attempts from deep and hit six straight field goal attempts. Oklahoma built the lead to as many as nine points, but a nifty lob pass from Smith to Council for a reverse dunk gave Arkansas some hope.
Black ended Oklahoma’s consecutive field goal streak at eight with a blocked layup attempt, and Council’s jumper cut the deficit to four points, but the Sooners went on a 5-2 run to stretch it back to a seven-point game at the under-eight timeout.
Oklahoma went cold on the other side of the break, missing its next three shot attempts while Arkansas scored on consecutive possessions. Mitchell assisted Council and Smith on layups, sandwiching his rebound at the other end of the floor and prompting the Sooners to call timeout with the lead at three points.
The teams matched each other point-for-point over the next two minutes. Oklahoma guard Grant Sherfield became the first player to reach the 10-point mark, with Council and Smith joining him shortly thereafter.
Late in the period, it officially became the Ricky Council IV show. The Wichita State transfer hit a long 3-pointer from the left wing and made a hard-charging layup to level the score at 38 points on the next possession. He drew a blocking foul and made the free throw to give the Hogs their first lead since 9-8.
Council finished the first 20 minutes 7-9 from the floor with 17 points to his name as the Razorbacks took a 43-40 advantage into halftime. They ended the period on a 20-10 run after trailing for more than 16 minutes.
Both teams’ first two possessions of the second half were unfruitful. Black registered his first points of the game nearly 90 seconds into the period, followed by Smith’s fifth field goal, which extended the Hogs’ cushion to seven points.
Oklahoma got the margin back to three, but not for long. After Mitchell laid it in, Black got a piece of the subsequent inbound pass, corralled the ball and found an open Smith in the middle of the lane for the dunk, all in the span of nine seconds.
Down seven once again, the Sooners called their second timeout. After failing to find an open player to receive the inbound pass, they had to burn their third as well.
The stoppage exceeded six minutes of real time, and Oklahoma could not find a rhythm on the other side. Mitchell recorded a steal and a layup, reaching double digits for the second consecutive game. Walsh stole an inbound pass near half-court and threw it down on a breakaway to make it an 11-point game.
Almost six minutes into the second half, the Sooners recorded their first points in more than two minutes to stop an 8-0 Arkansas run, but Smith responded with a 3-pointer to halt any sort of momentum shift.
Kamani Johnson, who had been fairly inconsequential in his first eight minutes, put back a layup through contact at the 11:18 mark and sank the resulting free throw to complete the three-point play. The senior forward stole the ball on the next Oklahoma possession, which begat a Davonte Davis layup.
The two teams traded buckets, and Johnson set Smith up for his eighth field goal of the afternoon, elevating his point total over 20 for the second straight game. With 7:41 left in regulation, the Hogs led 71-57.
The Sooners began to heat up over the next few minutes, sinking four of five field goal attempts. Walsh did not let the lead shrink below nine points, drilling a 3-pointer from the left wing with a little over four minutes remaining.
Oklahoma did well to get the margin back to 10 points a couple times, but Black and Council leapt to the rim to down its hopes with dunks on consecutive possessions. Sherfield hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to nine points with 1:05 to go, and the Sooners called their final timeout.
The final 65 seconds featured another 15 points, including a smashing Council dunk against an unsuspecting Sooner defense to cap things off.
The Hogs will take their 9-1 record to North Little Rock next Saturday, where they are slated to take on the Bradley Braves at 3 p.m. at Simmons Bank Arena. The contest will not be broadcast on television, but it can be heard on the radio.