Pelphrey: Road is no excuse

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The Coleman Coliseum crowd, generously listed at 9, 164 Wednesday night in the boxscore, often was so quiet that the instructions yelled by coaches John Pelphrey of Arkansas and Mark Gottfried of Alabama easily could be heard by their players.

This was not a hostile environment in any way.

But Arkansas still suffered its fourth consecutive road loss and fell to 2-5 in SEC games away from Walton Arena.

By losing 59-56 at Alabama, the Razorbacks are assured of finishing with a losing record in SEC road games for the 13 th consecutive season. “That’s no excuse,” Pelphrey said of losing on the road. “I think Arkansas has won enough games [in its history ] where we should expect to win on the road. “ It’s what I expect. It doesn’t excuse you to play poorly.” Arkansas’ last winning SEC road record was in 1995, when the defending national champion Razorbacks went 5-3.

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You do the math Arkansas still can share the SEC West title, but it will take the Razorbacks going 3-0 to finish regular-season play and Mississippi State going 0-3. The Bulldogs improved to 10-3 in SEC play by beating Auburn on Wednesday night and clinched no worse than a tie for the division title.

Jemison shines Alabama sophomore forward Demetrius Jemison had career highs of 19 points and 11 rebounds while going against Arkansas’ rotation of senior Charles Thomas, sophomore Michael Washington and senior Vincent Hunter. “I thought [Jemison ] really took it to our power forwards,” Arkansas Coach John Pelphrey said. “We had no answer out of our three guys.” Thomas, Washington and Hunter combined for five points and eight rebounds.

“[Jemison ] outplayed them from start to finish,” Pelphrey said. “Offensive rebounding, jump shooting, defensively, low-post scoring — complete domination.”

Thomas returned to the starting lineup for the first time in eight games, since he was suspended for the Mississippi State game in Fayetteville on Feb. 16.

Coming off the bench in six games since the suspension before Wednesday night’s game, Thomas averaged just 4. 7 points and 3. 5 rebounds along with 3. 8 fouls — including fouling out twice — and 2. 6 turnovers.

Pelphrey had hoped a return to the lineup would jump-start Thomas, but he had 2 points, 3 rebounds and 3 turnovers.

Riley can defend

Alabama senior forward Mykal Riley of Pine Bluff is known primarily for his threepoint shooting, but Wednesday night he helped the Tide win with his defense.

Riley hit only 1 of 4 threepoint attempts and scored 7 points — half of his 14. 3 average — but he helped make it a tough game for Arkansas sophomore guard Patrick Beverley. Beverley, guarded by Riley, shot 2 of 11 from the field and finished with 5 points.

“Mykal’s not a great defender. He knows that, but he played with a lot of energy,” Tide Coach Mark Gottfried said. “Beverley was 2 of 11, and a lot of that was because of Mykal.”

Beverley also was hurt by foul problems. He had played only seven minutes in the first half because of two fouls and played 24 minutes overall. Still playing hard

Alabama Coach Mark Gottfried let out a scream of joy — maybe it was relief — after the final buzzer after the Tide won its fourth SEC game this season and its second in the past six tries.

“This profession will drive you a little nuts,” Gottfried said. “We’ve struggled. We know it. It’s been difficult.

“ I’m proud of [the players ] that they’re going to keep fighting and hustle and play hard. We’ve got a lot of basketball left to play.”