Hogs battle back vs. Aggies to extend SEC winning streak to 11
A much closer game than anticipated, Arkansas battled against a Texas A&M team with nothing to lose to secure the final home game of the season and extend their SEC winning streak to 11.
“I mean, just a general fan just doesn’t understand how hard it is to win 11 games in a row in league play," Eric Musselman said post-game. "Trust me, it’s difficult. To win on the road, to win with travel, to win at home, to not have a letdown, it’s hard to do and our guys … did we play great tonight? No. We played well enough to win. And we buckled down down the stretch when we had to get defensive stops.”
The Aggies came out of the gate hitting four of their first eight threes, giving them a 26-19 lead at the 11:28 mark in the first half. The Razorbacks made some lazy passes to give A&M some easy buckets, cause Head Coach Eric Musselman to burn an early timeout.
Arkansas star freshman Moses Moody was the sole offensive weapon early on for the Razorbacks, scoring 9 of the Hogs’ first 14.
The early struggles seemed to be a bad combination of no energy, less-than-stellar defense, and cold shooting. Arkansas was 7-20 from the field at the under-eight media timeout with five turnovers and down 35-21 with 6:48 to go in the first. The Aggies, on the other hand, were 14-25 from the field, including 7-12 from deep.
“I think they just came out and executed their game plan early on," senior Jalen Tate said. "Them guys were excited to play. Like you said, they haven’t had a lot of games and we had a little bit of a slow start because they were making a lot of good, tough shots early on. So we had to pick it up. We did towards the end of the half and we were able to carry it into the second half."
Coming out of the media timeout, Moody hit two free throws and Tate hit a three to bring the Hogs within 9, but A&M followed it up with a layup. Tate came down again for another layup to give him 10 first half points. Moody grabbed an offensive rebound for a putback to cut the Aggie lead to 7. A&M called timeout with 3:00 left in the first. The duo of Moody and Tate carried the Razorbacks in their comeback effort.
“The biggest thing to me with Tate tonight was he played 36 minutes and 44 seconds and had one turnover and led us in defensive rebounding," Musselman said. "Then you had in the fast that he had 4 assists and 22 points, he was phenomenal.”
Moody closed out the half with an acrobatic layup to trim the Aggies lead to three, 41-38. That was the smallest margin since the Aggies took a 22-19 lead with 12:21 left in the first half. The Razorbacks ended the half on a 17 to 6 run.
“After we realized we could take the lead from 14 to three in that short period of time, we knew that we should be winning this game," Moody said. "Coming in at halftime. We talked about it. Just changed out mindset and knew we had to come out ready to fight."
The Aggies had the ball to start the half and hit a mid-range jumpshot to start. Arkansas answered with a Connor Vanover mid-range shot. A stop on the defensive end that Tate converted with a layup cut the deficit to one, but A&M came back down to push the lead back to three.
After a three and a three-point play, the Aggies extended the lead back out to nine, up 51 -42. Davis stopped the bleeding with a floater, but A&M answered back.
“Devo did a great job of getting into the teeth of the defense off the bounce and shooting that mid-range pull up, because he’s such a great creator, and he elevates over the defense," Musseman said. "He’s got to do a better job taking care of the basketball.”
Moody hit a three to cut it back to 6 with 15:48 in the second half, and an offensive foul by the Aggies took the game to the first media timeout of the second half with the score 53-47. After two Aggie free throws, Davis hit a midrange jumpshot and Moody a corner three to cut it back to three, 55-52. Texas A&M Head Coach Buzz Williams called a timeout with 13:31 to go in the game.
The Razorbacks forced a turnover out of the Aggie timeout and led to a Smith bucket underneath, cutting the lead to one before the Aggies scored their first field goal in nearly three minutes. The Razorbacks kept their run going with multiple stops and took the lead 58-57 with a Tate midrange jumper.
Entering the final media timeout at 3:53, Arkansas trailed 71-69 with Notae headed to the free throw line for two shots.
Notae made both free throws to tie the game back up at 71. He followed that up with a steal, leading to Smith getting fouled attempting a layup. He made the first and missed the second, but Moody grabbed the offensive rebound and put it back up to take a 74-71 lead. The following possession, Texas A&M was called for an offensive foul, giving the Razorbacks the ball up three with 3:13 remaining.
Smith got fouled again, shooting in the double bonus and missing both. The Aggies came back down the floor and scored under the basket to cut it back to one. An Aggie three put them up two, but Smith had another follow to tie it again. A Moody block had the Razorbacks running in transition with Tate finishing at the rim and getting fouled.
The refs reviewed the foul and overturned it, instead calling an offensive foul on Tate, leading to a three-point play opportunity for the Aggies, but failing to convert the free throw. Aggies held a 78-76 lead.
Coming back down the court, Moody hit a three for yet another lead change, giving the Razorbacks a 79-78 lead with 48.7 seconds.
The Razorbacks stole the Aggie inbound, leading to a Smith dunk to take the lead 81-78 with 36.3 seconds remaining in the game. The Aggies called their final timeout.
A&M got an open look in the corner, but missed. Notae got the rebound and was immediately fouled. Notae made both, extending the lead to five.
Arkansas fouled A&M guard Emanuel Miller to prevent a wide open layup with 14.7 seconds left. He converted both, cutting the lead back to three. Notae received the inbounds pass and was fouled immediately again. He converted both free throws again. Davis stole the ball from the Aggies and led to a runaway dunk to finish the game 87-80 and a Razorback win.
“I thought our guys did a great job, especially down the stretch. … You never want your team to kind of turn it up another level. You want them to play at a high, high level all game," Musselman said. "But I did think we turned it up that last minute-and-a-half, especially from a defensive standpoint.”
With 28 points on the night, Moody secured his position as the leading scorer on the year, becoming just the sixth freshman to lead the Razorbacks in scoring in program history.
"I mean, it's cool,” Moody said. “It's definitely that. Given the success that we're able to have is a testament to the fact that we're just a really good team. I'm glad I've been able to contribute to the team in the way I have.
Although Moody decided not to make his case for SEC Player of the Year or Freshman of the Year in the postgame interview, Coach Musselman gave his thoughts.
“He’s a go-to player on one of the two best teams in the league,” Musselman said. “He’s played as good as any player in the entire country. I’m not surprised… If anyone looked at my phone and the text messages and the phone calls, I think when we were recruiting him, we put enough effort in that we thought he’d be one of the best players in the country. It’s paid off that he trusted us and made a decision to come here. I think it’s paid off for Mo and for us. I think he’s in the right system.”
The win means Arkansas finishes with a 13-4 (.765) SEC record, their best conference record by win percentage since going 14-2 (.875) in 1993-1994. It also ties the mark for most conference wins in a single season in this century, matching the 2014-2015 team (13-5).
With losses occuring for teams in front of the Hogs in the polls and NCAA Tournament seedings, there is a very strong possibility Arkansas will be in the top-10 and on the 2-seed line heading into the SEC Tournament. That doesn’t change the team’s approach, though.
“Mindset stays the same, man,” Tate said. “Every game is a must win. And especially now but we’ve been carrying that mindset the whole season so I think that’s why we’ve got 11 straight and I think that’s why we’re going to be riding this wave for the tournament. We’re peaking at the right time.”
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