Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Hogs hear tough talk
Musselman demands, gets more after halftime deficit.
MEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL ARKANSAS 87, ORAL ROBERTS 76
UP NEXT Abilene Christian, 4 p.m. Tuesday. Walton Arena, Fayetteville (SEC Network)
FAYETTEVILLE — University of Arkansas men’s basketball Coach Eric Musselman said he had a simple message for his players at halftime of Sunday’s game against Oral Roberts.
“If you take ill- advised shots, you’re coming out,” Musselman said he told the Razorbacks. “If you don’t defend, you’re coming out. And if you don’t go to the defensive boards, you’re coming out.”
The Razorbacks listened to their coach, gave him more of what he wanted and rallied to beat the Golden Eagles 87-76 at Walton Arena.
Arkansas trailed at halftime for the first time and overcame its largest deficit of the season, 42-30, when Oral Roberts scored the first basket of the second half.
From there, things went much better for the Razorbacks.
“Coach definitely got into us a little bit,” Razorbacks senior forward Justin Smith said of the halftime talk. “He challenged me. He challenged all of us, really, to play better.
“I think that we responded really, really well, and we were able to pull out a win.”
Smith finished with 22 points and a career-high 17
rebounds, including 13 and 9 in the second half. He had 10 of Arkansas’ 24 offensive rebounds.
“I thought he was great,” Musselman said. “He can defensive rebound even better than what he’s done thus far. He’s as good an offensive rebounder as I’ve coached.”
Freshman guard Moses Moody had 18 points and 7 rebounds for Arkansas ( 70), and junior guard Desi Sills had 16 points and a career-high 10 rebounds for his first double-double.
“[Musselman] just told us we need to take better shots and quit turning the ball over,” Sills said. “We had nine turnovers at the half, and normally that’s what we’re supposed to have for the game. I feel like we did what we had to do in the second half to turn it around.”
The Razorbacks shot 54.1% in the second half (20 of 37) after shooting 30% (12 of 40) in the first half.
“I just feel like the first half was one pass and shoot,” Sills said. “In the second half we got in the paint, kicked out and got the open looks, and that’s why we came back the way we did. We tried to get out in transition.”
The Razorbacks were 2 of 8 on three-pointers in the second half after being 2 of 16 in the first half.
“Too many quick shots,” Musselman said. “Taking a decent shot instead of a good shot or a great shot.
“I thought guys came into the game tonight thinking ‘ score’ instead of thinking ‘Arkansas.’ First time it’s happened this year. Hopefully it does not happen again.”
Arkansas took the lead for good, 64-62, with 8:13 left on a basket by Smith.
Moody in the second half had 12 points and 4 rebounds, and shot 4 of 5 from the field.
“I thought Moses did a good job in the second half on the glass,” Musselman said. “His shot selection was much better second half than it was in the first half.
“But he struggled. I thought tonight was the first night that he struggled on both ends of the floor. That happens at times, but I did think he regrouped, and any time a guy can score 18 points in 28 minutes on a night that maybe he wasn’t at his best shows you the type of talent that he is.”
Junior forward Kevin Obanor led the Golden Eagles (3-5) with 21 points and 10 rebounds.
Oral Roberts senior guard RJ Glasper, a former walk-on for the Razorbacks from Forrest City who also played at Arkansas Tech, had 14 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists.
Arkansas junior guard JD Notae had all 15 of his points in the second half, and senior guard Jalen Tate finished with 8 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists.
“I think at halftime we were able to understand and respect Oral Roberts a little bit more than just the coaches respecting them,” Musselman said. “Sometimes it’s hard to grab your team’s attention when you win [six] games in a row.
“I thought we played really, really good in the second half, and I thought we played really, really poor in the first half.”
Arkansas played its first game in eight days after having a break for final exams.
“I think in the first half, we kind of were lost as a unit,” Smith said. “They were able to do whatever they wanted. They were able to get out in transition.
“In the second half, we were able to limit turnovers [ to six], which kept them from getting out and getting easy baskets. That made them have to play more half-court offense, which we were well equipped to deal with.”
Notae started the second half in place of 7-3 Connor Vanover, who had 3 points and 3 rebounds in 9 minutes in the first half, then didn’t play in the second half when Musselman decided to go with a smaller, quicker lineup.
“Certainly to win the second half by 21 points it worked to our advantage,” Musselman said. “Although Connor has been as good as anybody on our roster and he’s going to be as valuable as any guy on our team.”
The Razorbacks outrebounded the Golden Eagles 58-32, and outscored them 5622 on points in the paint and 22-6 on second-chance points.
“I think we were just more aggressive to the ball on the offensive boards,” Smith said. “Also, I don’t know what we shot from the field but it wasn’t a good percentage, especially from three. So, that gave us more opportunities, and luckily we were able to get some of those balls back and get an extra possession.”
Official James Breeding hit Musselman with his first technical foul of the season with 11:34 left in second half.
Musselman declined to be specific about what happened when asked whether he deserved the technical.
“I won’t say anything,” Musselman said. “I’d rather save the money to get my wife a Louis Vuitton bag or something like that.”