Jones impresses in overtime loss to Auburn
FAYETTEVILLE — Auburn coach Bruce Pearl had an answer for why the No. 11-ranked Tigers outlasted the University of Arkansas basketball team Tuesday night in Walton Arena.
“Obviously, Arkansas just ran out of bodies without Isaiah Joe,” Pearl said after Auburn overcame an 11-point deficit in the last six minutes of regulation and beat the Razorbacks 79-76 in overtime. “So we were fortunate.”
Arkansas (16-6, 4-5 SEC) will have to get used to playing without Joe for at least a couple of weeks.
That’s the minimum recovery time expected for a player who has undergone arthroscopic debridement surgery to his right knee — as Joe did on Tuesday because of recurring inflammation — according to medical websites.
The recovery time could be longer. The term “debridement” refers to fragments being removed from the knee.
Razorbacks coach Eric Musselman said Joe’s surgery was successful, but that he’s out indefinitely.
Joe, a 6-5 sophomore from Fort Smith, is a two-year starter and averaging 16.0 points per game.
He first hurt his knee while scoring 34 points at Ole Miss on Jan. 11, Musselman said previously, and aggravated it at Mississippi State on Jan. 22 when he scored seven points and hit 2-of-13 shots.
After sitting out against TCU on Jan. 25, Joe came back last week and scored 16 points in 36 minutes off the bench against South Carolina.
He returned to the starting lineup at Alabama, but was scoreless in 21 minutes.
Arkansas is 1-1 without Joe, beating TCU 78-67 before losing to Auburn.
“I think we played phenomenal. I really do,” Musselman said of Arkansas’ games without Joe. “I think TCU we were great. I thought we played really good [against Auburn].
“We went through a scoring drought toward the end of the game, but we missed 10 foul shots [going 16-of-26] against the 11th-ranked team in the country.
“The game went into overtime. Those guys are battling. They’re doing everything they can. They really are.”
Arkansas junior guard Mason Jones scored 40 points against Auburn and became the first Razorback to score 30 or more points in three consecutive games, including 34 against South Carolina and 30 at Alabama.
Jones has scored 30 or more points in five games this season with a career-high 41 against Tulsa. He’s the first Razorback to have two games of 40 or more points in the same season since 1973-74 when Dean Tolson had 45 against Texas A&M and 41 against Indiana State.
The Razorbacks, who play at Missouri (10-12, 2-7) on Saturday, likely need Jones to keep scoring at a high rate to win games during Joe’s absence.
“Isaiah being Isaiah, he can bring so much attention to himself, and that’s a 17-, 18-, 20-, even a 30-point scorer,” Jones said. “So having Zay out there would help me out. But we’re going to keep battling until Zay gets back.”
Musselman essentially went with a six-man rotation against Auburn, and Jones played 44:35 out of 45 possible minutes.
Jeantal Cylla replaced Jones with 8:53 left in the first half, then Jones came back into the game 15 seconds later after Cylla had a defensive lapse and fouled J’Von McCormick, who hit two free throws.
“With our roster right now, to play a team of [Auburn’s] caliber, we need every single guy to contribute,” Musselman said.
“I’m thinking about putting Cylla in [for a few minutes], and he got beat back door for a layup in eight seconds.”
Cylla got back into the game later and played 2:08. Ethan Henderson played 3:58.
In addition to Jones, Desi Sills played 40:50, Jimmy Whitt 40:21, Adrio Bailey 34:57, Jalen Harris 32:53 and Reggie Chaney 25:21.
No Tiger played 40 full minutes, though Samir Doughty was at 39:49 and McCormick at 39:27. Auburn used nine players, with eight playing more than 10 minutes.
“This is the roster we’ve got,” Musselman said. “So I thought we played good enough to win, even in overtime, to be honest.”
Musselman continued to praise the Razorbacks’ effort with eight healthy scholarship players.
“I’ve been around a lot of teams,” Musselman said. “I haven’t been around too many teams that battle any harder than these guys.
“There probably are a lot of people around the country that are surprised at how well we played. I’m not, because I believe in our guys.
“We walked into this building thinking we were going to win. We did not. We lost by three in an overtime game short-handed. There are no excuses.
“I’m not happy we lost, nobody is. But I’m proud of how hard we played, for sure.”