Arkansas climbs to No. 13 after big win
FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas women’s basketball team wasn’t even supposed to participate in this year’s Big 12-SEC Challenge. But the decision to opt in produced one of the biggest victories in program history.
The Razorbacks put together a 13-0 third-quarter run, then held off a late Baylor charge to claim an 83-78 win over the defending national champion Lady Bears in Bud Walton Arena on Sunday evening.
Arkansas coach Mike Neighbors said league officials asked if the Razorbacks would play in the event when other teams had issues even before COVID-19.
“We kinda volunteered for it,” Neighbors said. “This was supposed to be our year off. My big mouth, I just said ‘Hey, we’ll play’em.’ I’m glad it all worked out like it did.”
The end result was the biggest win for Arkansas since the Razorbacks knocked off No. 2 LSU 82-72 in 2003.
Arkansas climbed three spots to No. 13 in this week’s Associated Press women’s basketball poll with the win. Ironically, the Razorbacks are now one spot above Maryland, which dominated the Razorbacks a week ago 115-96. Baylor slipped from fourth to seventh after the loss.
Neighbors said he and the Razorbacks absolutely celebrated the meaningful win.
“You have to celebrate these things,” Neighbors said. “You know why? It could be over tomorrow. We learned that last year. I hugged a couple of those kids even though it was COVID just to thank them for believing back when we were picked 14th in our league.
“But keep it in perspective. It doesn’t mean we go to the NCAA Tournament or we get a home game or a seed. But we got a bullet, a piece of ammunition to fire at people when it come time to talk about stuff like that at the end of the year.”
Arkansas was out-rebounded 51-38 by a bigger Baylor team, but it had success taking the ball at the Lady Bears off the dribble and drawing fouls.
Amber Ramirez led four Arkansas players in double figures with 23 points, including 16 in the second half. The 5-9 redshirt senior, who transferred from TCU, also canned two free throws in the waning seconds to seal the deal.
Ramirez came up big, but she pointed out the group works well together. Three other Razorbacks scored in double figures.
“Tonight, I stepped up to the plate when my team needed me,” Ramirez said. “I knocked down shots, got to the basket and created for my teammates. They give me the confidence to keep going even though I kinda struggled in the beginning.”
“We just got to the basket. They couldn’t stay in front of us and we used what we could to get downhill.”
Baylor coach Kim Mulkey was asked if her usually stellar defensive team was a step slow against Arkansas. She credited Ramirez and teammate Chelsea Dungee, who both transferred to Arkansas after Neighbors came, for being aggressive.
“Two of those kids we’ve played against in the Big 12,” Mulkey said. “Ramirez was at TCU, Dungee was at OU. I never felt like we didn’t have the speed. What I think a lot of it is, is their ability to round the corner and get up into you and draw fouls. That’s what great players do.”
The Razorbacks also got a nice lift from 6-0 sophomore Marquesha Davis off the bench. She contributed eight points, four steals and four rebounds in 15 minutes. Her four steals was a game-high and she’s now had three or more steals in four of Arkansas’ six games. It wasn’t a surprise to Neighbors.
“She’s been doing things in practice that make us shake our head,” Neighbors said. “Now, she’s starting to do them in games.”
The win does take away the sting of last week’s loss to Maryland, Neighbors said. But he also said the experiences of the previous weekend in Florida played a part in the victory.
“If we don’t go down there and play that then we don’t know some things that we’ve learned about our team,” Neighbors said. “We made some major changes in what we’ve been doing. We’ve gone to almost a pure motion action, very few set plays because they’re comfortable in it. They’re learning each other.”
Arkansas travels SMU on Wednesday for a 7 p. m. tip, then will host Central Arkansas at 2 p.m. on Sunday.