Second half defense wins it for Hogs over Oklahoma State, 66-65

It was a one-possession game the final 12 minutes and 17 seconds, but Arkansas held on at the end for a 66-65 win over Oklahoma State Saturday night in front of 18,057 in attendance in Bud Walton Arena.

Arkansas trailed by as many as 13 points and were down by 12, 46-34, with 18:20 to play in the second half. The Hog defense stood strong in the second half and held OSU to just 25 points. Arkansas never led in the game until a tip-in by Arlando Cook made it a 50-49 Razorback lead with 10:50 to play. From that point, the lead changed 13 times.

“I thought our defense was different in the second half.” Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said. “Oklahoma State’s a very good basketball team. We think we’re a very good basketball team. We didn’t shoot the ball very well. They shot over 50 percent in the first half, shot 22 percent in the second half.”

The winning bucket came after a pair of free throws by OSU’s Mitchell Solomon gave the Cowboys a 65-64 lead. Arkansas’ Anton Beard threw up a floater on his drive down the floor that just missed but was tipped in by Daniel Gafford with 16.3 seconds left to put the Razorbacks up 66-65.

With 11.1 seconds left after the ball went out on Arkansas’ Daryl Macon with the Hogs still up 66-65, the Cowboys inbounded the ball on their own baseline. They missed two layups for a chance to take the lead. Jeffrey Carroll missed first, and Mitchell Solomon made a big rebound but saw his put-back roll off the rim.

“We had some good looks there even at the last possession. You’ve got two layups, you’ve got to make them,” OSU coach Mike Boynton said. “I don’t think we ran bad offense, the results weren’t there.”

“We got a good look, it didn’t fall for us,” OSU guard Brandon Averette said. “We got a lot of good looks, they just didn’t fall for us tonight. We’ve still got to find a way to win.”

“We were fortunate right there. They had two tips at the ball. I don’t know if there was some angel up there, but it kept the ball out,” Anderson said.

Arkansas’ Trey Thompson rebounded the second miss and was fouled with 2.5 seconds left. Thompson missed the front end of the one and one free throw, but it left OSU scrambling for a desperation 3-pointer from beyond half court that went off the shot clock no good and probably was after the buzzer anyway.

Oklahoma State missed their final seven shots from the floor, with the last bucket coming on a 3-pointer by Lindy Waters with 7:34 to go to give the Cowboys a 56-55 lead. The remaining 10 points from OSU came at the free throw line.

Macon, who went scoreless in this game last year on 0 of 8 shooting, led Arkansas with 22 points on 7 of 13 shooting. Fellow senior Dustin Thomas had 9 points and 10 rebounds with 3 assists and 3 steals. Arkansas won the turnover battle 16-9 and had a 23-15 advantage on second-chance points despite losing the rebounding battle 39-34.

“I wasn’t even thinking about last year. I just went out there and played ball,” Macon said. “Sometimes you’re not going to get your average, sometimes you are. You’ve just got to keep pushing.

“I’ve just got to go hard,” Macon said. “It’s my last year, I feel like I’ve got something to prove still. I’ve still got this chip on my shoulder.”

Arkansas was 24 of 61 from the floor (39.3 percent), 8 of 22 from 3-point range (36.4 percent) and 10 of 18 from the line (55.6 percent). OSU, led by 17 points from Waters, was 20 of 52 from the floor (38.5 percent), 7 of 24 from 3 (29.2 percent) and 18 of 23 from the line (78.3 percent).

“I thought it was a great college basketball game,” Boynton said. “They’ve got a great team. This is one of the best venues in all of college basketball for sure, and they had it rolling today…obviously disappointed in the result for our team, but really proud of the way they responded to a little diversity.”

SECOND HALF

OSU entered the second half with a 40-32 lead, and after taking an 11-point lead, 49-38 with 16:29 to play on a jumper by Yankuba Sima, the Razorbacks rattled off 10 straight points to make it a 1-point game, 49-48 with 12:17 to play . It was as close as the game had been since it was 9-8 in favor of OSU with 15:44 to play in the first half.

Macon scored 7 of the 10 points on two free throws, a layup and a 3-pointer at the 12:17 mark. That last bucket gave Macon 20 for the game.

The Hogs continued the run, 12-0 on a put-back by Cook with 10:50 left to make it 50-49. Arkansas’ defense was really amped up with 6-6 Darious Hall matched up with the 5-11 Averette at point guard. It was the first Hog lead of the game.

Then Jaylen Barford was hit with the a highly questionable foul out in front of the OSU bench, and when he reacted in surprise the the referee hit him with a technical foul. The two ensuing free throws by Jeffrey Carroll put the Pokes up 51-50 with 10:14 to go.

After Macon’s 3-pointer made it a 1-point game with 12:17 left, neither team led by more than 2 points the next 10 minutes and 11 seconds until Dustin Thomas knocked down a pair of free throws to make it a 64-61 Razorback lead with 2:06 to play in the game. That 3-point lead was the largest of the final 12 minutes and 17 seconds.

It was a 64-63 Razorback lead following a pair of free throws by Waters with 2:01 to play. A minute later, OSU inbounded the basketball, Arkansas’ Trey Thompson blocked Jeffrey Carroll and the ball went out of bounds with 41.7 seconds to play – OSU ball.

After back-to-back offensive rebounds, Soloman got fouled under the basket with 22.4 seconds left, and he made both free throws to give the Cowboys a 65-64 lead. After a timeout, Beard threw up a floater that just missed but was tipped in by Gafford with 16.3 seconds left to put the Hogs up 66-65. That would prove to be the winning basket, and Arkansas called timeout.

After reviewing an out of bounds ball that went to Oklahoma State with 11.1 seconds left, the Cowboys got two looks inside the paint – resulting in a miss by Carroll and a missed put-back by Solomon. Thompson rebounded and was fouled with 2.5 seconds left and a 66-65 lead. Thompson missed the front end of the one and one, but it left OSU with a missed heave from 60 feet that likely came just after the buzzer went off and ended the game.

FIRST HALF

Arkansas got off to a slow start as Oklahoma State jumped out to a 9-0 lead, but thanks to two 3-pointers from the baseline by Barford (the first with 16:28 to play in the first half) and a layup from Beard, it was quickly a 9-8 game. The 8-0 Arkansas run lasted 48 seconds and included two steals.

The Cowboys came right back with an 11-0 run to take a 20-8 lead over the next 2 minutes and 10 seconds down to the 13-minute mark. After OSU took a 13-point lead, 24-11 with 11:40 to go in the first, Arkansas went on an 8-2 spurt to get the lead down to 5, 26-21 with 9:02 remaining.

A little ebb and flow over the next five minutes and it was still a 5-point OSU advantage, 35-30 with 3:41 to play in the half. Arkansas was 5 of 9 from 3-point range at this stage of the game (55.6 percent), which was better than they were from the floor on 12 of 27 shooting (44.4 percent) and better than they were at the line on 1 of 4 shooting (25 percent).

A big block by Hall on Averette led to a snowbird-like pass from Beard to Macon for a dunk on the other end to make it a 3-point game, 35-32 with 2:48 to play. That was the closest the game had been since it was 9-8 for OSU with 15:44 to play in the half. After a missed layup with seven seconds left, Averette gave the Pokes an 8-point lead with a driving layup as time expired in the half, 40-32.