Sloppy start, strong finish for Hogs in win over Vanderbilt, 72-54
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It was an ugly first half for both teams, but Arkansas scored 44 points in the second and put Vanderbilt away 72-54 Saturday night in Bud Walton Arena.
The Razorbacks (17-8, 6-6 SEC) led 28-21 out of halftime before producing a 14-5 run that included four 3-pointers, two apiece for Jaylen Barford and Daryl Macon. That broke the game wide-open with a 17-point lead, 53-36, with 8:08 remaining. The run lasted 4 minutes and 54 seconds.
“I think we can take care of the basketball [to be better]. I thought defensively we were on point,” Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said after the game. “We can play a lot better, I can feel that. We can shoot the ball a lot better. This time of year, you want to get wins.”
Arkansas eventually led by as many as 21 points two different times, including on a breakaway windmill dunk by freshman Daniel Gafford to make it 70-49 with 2:07 remaining. Gafford had his best game in recent memory with 16 points, 9 rebounds and 7 blocked shots in 24 minutes of action. It is only the 12th time in school history a player has had 7 blocks in a game.
“I’ve got to protect the basket. I had it on my mind I was going to send back everything that came in,” Gafford said. “They told me whatever comes in there, send it the other way.”
“He was ranked the 37th best player in the country coming in for a reason,” Vanderbilt coach Bryce Drew said. “He’s going to be a special player here.”
Macon made all four of his 3-pointers in the second half over a span of 5 minutes and 51 seconds from the 11:39 mark until 5:48 remained. He finished with 21 points to lead all scorers. He got 15 of them in the second half on 5 of 9 shooting, including 4 of 5 from downtown. It was the seventh game in a row for Macon to score at least 20 points, putting him one game back of tying Corliss Williamson’s 1994 mark. Barford scored 16 and also had four makes from beyond the arc.
“I’m not the guy that’s just going to go and chase points. If it happens it happens. If not, oh well,” Macon said. “We’ve played better. We’ve just got to keep working. The second half was one of our better halves.”
For the game, Arkansas was 27 of 58 from the floor (46.6 percent), including 17 of 32 (53.1 percent) in the second half. The Hogs were 9 of 17 from 3-point range (52.9 percent) with a 7 of 11 effort in the second half (63.6 percent). Arkansas was just 9 of 16 from the free throw line (56.3 percent).
Vanderbilt was just 14 of 56 from the floor (25 percent) and only 3 of 26 from 3-point range (11.5 percent). The only area Vanderbilt excelled in was free throw shooting with a 23 of 29 showing (79.3 percent). Arkansas out-rebounded Vanderbilt 43-37, and Vandy outscored Arkansas 20-12 on bench points. Five Vanderbilt players scored 8 points to lead the team.
“We’re a team that usually shoots threes really well, unfortunately we just couldn’t knock them down,” Drew said. “For whatever reason the ball just wasn’t going in the hole tonight, and it became contagious.”
In the first half, Arkansas came back from a 13-7 deficit with 10:23 to play and went on a 19-2 run to take a 26-15 lead. Vanderbilt scored 8 points from the 12:50 mark until 2:31 was left, but they all came from the free throw line. The Hogs started off with six turnovers in the first six minutes.
“I was like, whose team is this? Who’s coaching this team? But we were able to put it back together,” Anderson said. “We didn’t even get any attempts. We were just throwing the ball away.”
The Commodores (9-16, 3-9 SEC) were 3 of 22 (13.7 percent) before they broke the drought with 2:30 left on a tap-in from Larry Austin Jr. to cut Arkansas’ lead to 26-19. The Hogs took a 28-21 advantage into halftime after connecting on 10 of 26 field goal attempts (38.5 percent). Vanderbilt had nine first half turnovers, which is normal for an Arkansas opponent, but the Hogs had 10, which is atypical.
SECOND HALF
After Arkansas led 28-21 at halftime, Vanderbilt closed the margin to 6 points, 30-24, with 18:51 to play. With Arkansas holding on to an 8-point lead with 13:18 to play, 39-31, Barford knocked down a pair of 3-pointers in 41 seconds and then Macon made another to suddenly give the Hogs a 16-point lead off a 9-1 run. It was their largest of the game at that time, 48-32 (they eventually led by 21 twice). Barford had 16 points, and Macon had 12 at that time.
Another Macon 3-pointer and an alley-oop dunk from Anton Beard to Gafford made it a 17-point Hog lead, 53-36, with 8:08 to play. It was part of a 14-5 Razorback run over a span of 4 minutes and 54 seconds.
A 3-pointer from Beard with 3:55 to play put the Hogs up 19, 65-46, with 3:55 to play. Arkansas led by 21 points twice, 67-46 with 3:18 left and 70-49 with 2:07 left on a windmill exclamation point dunk by Gafford.
FIRST HALF
Arkansas had six turnovers in the first six minutes of action, which included two over-and-back calls. The Hogs took their first lead, 7-6, on a nice step-back move from just inside the 3-point line by Macon with 13:12 to play in the first half.
Vanderbilt scored the next 7 points and took a 6-point lead, 13-7, but Arkansas came right back with 15 unanswered to take a 22-13 lead with 5 minutes to play. The run included back-to-back Barford 3-pointers to put Arkansas back in the lead at the 7:30 mark of the first half, 18-13. Barford had 8 points at that time. The Hogs made it a 19-2 run on a jumper by C.J. Jones with 3:06 left that put the Hogs up 11, 26-15.
Vanderbilt last scored from the field on a 3-pointer by LaChance to make it a 9-7 lead with 12:50 to play until Austin had a put-back to make it 26-19 with 2:30 to play. It was a 10 minutes and 19 second drought from the floor for the Commodores.
During that time, Vandy’s Maxwell Evans contributed 6 Commodore points with a 6 of 6 showing at the free throw line, and Saben Lee had 2 points on a 2 of 2 effort from the line. Vandy was 3 of 22 (13.7 percent) before Austin’s put-back. The Commodores finished the first half 4of 26 from the floor (15.4 percent) but were 12 of 12 from the free throw line. It was a 28-21 Razorback lead at halftime.
ODDS, ENDS & UP NEXT...
Up next, Arkansas heads to Oxford to take on the Ole Miss Rebels (11-14, 4-8 SEC) Tuesday at 6 p.m.
Adrio Bailey has the flu and did not play. After starting and turning the ball over on the first possession, Arlando Cook did not re-enter the game.