Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
SEC setback
Hogs say they will regroup after first conference loss since Jan. 16.
It took two months, but the Arkansas Razorbacks lost another basketball game to an SEC opponent.
LSU beat the University of Arkansas 78-71 on Saturday in the SEC Tournament semifinals in Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn.
The Tigers advanced to today’s noon championship game against Alabama and ended the No. 8-ranked Razorbacks’ winning streak against SEC teams at 12 games.
“We wanted to finish out the SEC season with no more losses,” said freshman guard Moses Moody, who led Arkansas with 28 points. “That would have been cool.”
It was the longest winning streak in SEC play for Arkansas since the 1994 national championship team also won 12 games in a row the same way the current Razorbacks did — by closing out with 11 regular-season victories and winning in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals.
The Razorbacks (22-6) hadn’t lost to an SEC team since Jan. 16 when Alabama beat them 90-59.
Senior forward Justin Smith, who had 21 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists for the Razorbacks on Saturday, said it was difficult to have the SEC winning streak end.
“When you’re on a run like that, you kind of get used to it,” he said. “I don’t think we ever got complacent or anything like that, but it definitely hurts. Losing hurts every time regardless. We really wanted this game.”
Arkansas will be in the NCAA Tournament field announced today, but Razorbacks Coach Eric Musselman wasn’t ready to talk about that.
“I’m mad we lost,” Musselman said. “I mean, maybe [Sunday] I’ll think about that. Right now, we lost. We didn’t play well enough to win.
“I’m worried about how we get better after [Saturday]. We’ll regroup.”
The Razorbacks started 9 of 13 from the field to jump out to a 22-14 lead, but they shot 34.1% (18 of 52) the rest of the game. They played games on back-to-back days for the first time this season after beating Missouri 70-64 on Friday night.
“I thought we just didn’t have enough gas in the tank on a back-to-back,” Musselman said.
Musselman essentially went with a six-man rotation against LSU with Jaylin Williams missing his fourth consecutive game for an undisclosed reason and Connor Vanover playing five minutes and Desi Sills four, but the Razorbacks refused to blame the loss on fatigue.
“I’m not going to make the fatigue excuse,” said Smith, who played 39 minutes on Saturday and 31 on Friday night. “I think we stopped moving the ball.
“We were getting really good shots. We were getting open shots. Also in the first 10 minutes, they run the zone. We made them get out of that. But credit to their defense, making it difficult on us.”
Moody played 39 minutes in both SEC Tournament games.
“I did kind of feel like a physical fatigue,” Moody said. “That’s nothing to blame a loss on. You’ve got to be able to fight through that.”
Moody hit two free throws to give Arkansas a 50-47 lead with 13:25 left.
LSU (18-8) went on a 17-2 run — including five points by freshman guard Cameron Thomas — to move ahead 6452 with 7:25 left on freshman guard Eric Gaines’ layup.
The Razorbacks fought back to pull within 72-71 on Smith’s layup with 37 seconds left.
“I think we’ve showed that we’re never really out of the game, regardless of how much time is left or the score,” Smith said. “I think we were all confident that we were going to be able to make plays, and we did down the stretch.”
But the Razorbacks couldn’t make enough plays for a 13th consecutive SEC victory.
LSU senior guard Javonte Smart scored on a drive to the basket with 25 seconds left to make it 74-71.
“[Smart] attacked the pressure,” Tigers Coach Will Wade said. “That’s as good a shot as you’ll see at the end.”
LSU guard Eric Gaines then stole the ball from JD Notae with 12 seconds left.
“JD had that turnover, but that doesn’t take away from all the other turnovers or all the other mistakes we made the rest of the game,” Smith said. “That mistake will be magnified, but that’s not what lost us the game.”
Gaines hit 4 of 4 free throws in the final 11 seconds to clinch the victory.
“We had tons of contributions,” Wade said. “I thought just a total team win.”
Thomas led LSU with 21 points. Smart had 19 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals. Junior forward Darius Days had 13 points and 8 rebounds .
“I give our guys a lot of credit for playing until the very end,” Musselman said. “But we just had some guys not play well at all. You can’t do that in a tournament setting.”
Smith, a senior graduate transfer from Indiana, will play in the NCAA Tournament for the first time.
“It feels good,” he said. “It’s kind of what we’ve been working towards. We were working towards this tournament as well, but it didn’t work out. Everybody dreams about playing in the NCAA Tournament.”
It likely will be the only NCAA Tournament for Moody, who is projected to be a first-round NBA Draft pick.
“We got to regroup and be ready for the NCAA championship, because we don’t get any more do-overs,” Moody said of Musselman’s message to the team. “We’re just going to take this [loss Saturday] as a learning experience.
“We were hot, we were on a streak. Now this just gives us a chance to regroup, get off that emotional high and get back to the trenches where it all started.”
NO. 6 ALABAMA 73, TENNESSEE 68
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Herbert Jones had 21 points and No. 6 Alabama rallied from a 15-point deficit in the second half to beat Tennessee.
Jahvon Quinerly added 19 points, including two free throws with 15.5 seconds left, to help the Crimson Tide (23-6) hang on and move to today’s SEC Tournament championship game against LSU.
Tennessee (18-8) awaits an NCAA Tournament seeding .
The Volunteers trailed 69-68 when Davonte Gaines missed two foul shots with 25 seconds left. Down 71-68, Victor Bailey missed a three-point try with nine seconds to go.
Trailing 48-33 with 16:56 remaining, Alabama stormed back to lead 60-59 with 5:26 left, their first edge since the opening basket. Alabama went ahead with just over four minutes left as Jones whipped a pass behind the arc to wide-open Keon Ellis for a tiebreaking three-pointer to put Alabama up for good.
Jones made one of two free throws with 3:24 left to make it a two-possession game before later feeding Quinerly in the lane for a layup and a 69-65 lead. Yves Pons’ three-pointer got Tennessee within 69-68 with 41.4 seconds left, but Quinerly added two free throws and Ellis two more with 3.7 seconds left to seal it.
Jones also had 13 rebounds and four assists for the Tide, who won despite shooting 37%.
Keon Johnson had 20 points and Jaden Springer 18 for Tennessee.