Tate provides
Hog makes 2 FTs with four seconds left to upend Kentucky.
Before joining the Arkansas Razorbacks as a graduate transfer this season, Jalen Tate played at Northern Kentucky in the shadow of the Kentucky Wildcats.
If a lot of Kentucky fans didn’t know about Tate, they are aware now.
Tate, a 6-6 senior guard, got a rebound in heavy traffic, drew a foul from Jacob Toppin and hit two free throws with 4.3 seconds left to give the University of Arkansas an 81-80 victory over the Wildcats on Tuesday night in Rupp Arena.
Razorbacks freshman guard Davonte Davis sealed the victory by stealing the ball with one second left.
Tate got his only offensive rebound of the game when he secured a driving miss by
Davis and managed to get up a shot attempt among a pack of Wildcats in the lane.
“Jalen has got a great nose for the ball, and you’ve got to give him a lot of credit,” Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman said. “Then the freethrow shooting in the clutch. That’s a lot of pressure on Jalen when he stepped up there and made both.”
Tate protested when a reporter called him the game’s hero for the Razorbacks.
“Man, I’m no hero,” Tate said. “I’m a guy that goes to work every day.”
Tate went to work against Kentucky with 15 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists in 37 minutes. He hit 5 of 10 shots and 5 of 5 free throws.
“I just wanted to win it for my team, honestly,” Tate said of his last-second free throws. “I’ve been thinking this whole time that I’ve been putting in all this work and I haven’t been getting the results.
“I so much wanted [to play better] these last few games, but we’re still winning. And I’ve just got to keep my head down and keep grinding.”
Tate was a true freshman at Northern Kentucky when the Norse lost to Kentucky 79-70 in a first-round 2017 NCAA Tournament game in Indianapolis. He redshirted that season because of a hand injury that limited him to the first eight games.
“I had to sit out and watch Bam Adebayo, De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk, and watch my guys try to take on that team in the NCAA Tournament,” Tate said, rattling off the names of Kentucky’s star players. “So having the opportunity to actually be out there and play … I was able to do everything I could to help my team win the game.”
Tate compared hitting the final free throws to being a kid on the playground and imagining yourself winning the big game.
“Playing against UK at Rupp down one, it’s like being outside,” he said. “I knew I didn’t have any second chances at this one, so I definitely wanted to bring it home.”
Arkansas (15-5, 7-4 SEC) won its fifth consecutive conference game and broke an eight-game losing streak against Kentucky (5-13, 4-7).
The Razorbacks hadn’t beaten the Wildcats in seven years, since sweeping two overtime games from Kentucky during the 2013-14 season.
“I think for all of our guys it’s a big win,” Musselman said. “It’s always big to win on the road. It’s always big to win a close game. Everybody is excited.”
The Razorbacks were ahead 36-35 at halftime and pushed their lead to 72-60 with 6:10 left when Kentucky freshman forward Isaiah Jackson was called for his fifth foul reaching in on Jaylin Williams, then drew a a technical foul for arguing.
Arkansas freshman guard Moses Moody, who had 14 points and seven rebounds, hit both technical free throws. Williams — a freshman forward who had 9 points, 7 rebounds and 1 blocked shot — hit both ends of the 1-and-1.
It looked like the Razor- backs were set to pull away, but Kentucky rallied with a barrage of three-point baskets, including one by Davion Mintz that put the Wildcats ahead 80-79 with 14 seconds left.
Musselman could have called a timeout, but rather than let Kentucky set up its defense, he had Davis drive the ball.
“Me, as a great transition player, I was trying to get to the rim,” Davis said. “I knew if I got it up that my teammates were going to be around the rim, so if it went in or it didn’t — and it didn’t — you saw Jalen had my back, and he got fouled and knocked down the two free throws.”
Arkansas sophomore forward Connor Vanover had 12 points, 4 rebounds and 2 blocked shots. Junior guard JD Notae had 11 points, and senior forward Justin Smith had nine.
Freshman guard Brandon Boston led Kentucky with 17 points. Senior center Olivier Sarr had 13 points and 10 rebounds.
The Wildcats hit 14 of 26 three-pointers, which Arkansas survived by hitting 18 of 23 free throws, including 15 of 17 in the second half. Kentucky hit 16 of 25 free throws and was 11 of 17 in the first half.
“I thought the free throws were really the difference in the ballgame,” Musselman said. “We got two more [made] than them, and they had really lived at the line in that first half.”
The announced crowd of 3,075 — the maximum allowed under Kentucky safety protocols — included 25 of Tate’s family and friends.
Tate is from Pickerington, Ohio, about a three-hour drive from the Kentucky campus in Lexington, Ky.
“Since I committed to Arkansas, everybody has been trying to get tickets to this game,” Tate said. “It’s a blessing that I was allowed to get everybody tickets that wanted to come to the game.”
Tate thanked his Arkansas teammates for allowing him to use their tickets.
“His family was here,” Davis said. “He had to give them what they came for. He did that, for sure.”