FAYETTEVILLE — Vanderbilt has beaten every SEC team at least once the past three years except for one.

Arkansas showed it had Vanderbilt’s number again, beating the No. 18 Commodores 78-73 Saturday before 18, 336 fans in Walton Arena.

The Razorbacks (19-9, 8-6 SEC ) are 7-1 against Vanderbilt (24-5, 9-5 ) since 2002, including four consecutive victories.

Winning at Vanderbilt last season and beating the Commodores in the SEC Tournament helped Arkansas gain an NCAA Tournament at-large bid.

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The Razorbacks had to win Saturday’s game to boost their NCAA Tournament hopes for this year after losing four of their previous five games, including a 59-56 stinker at Alabama on Wednesday night.

“We played hard for this win,” said Razorbacks senior forward Sonny Weems, who had a teamhigh 20 points, including hitting 6 of 6 free throws in the final 20. 8 seconds. “Vanderbilt is a great team, and they fought to the end, but we came away with the win.”

The teams traded the lead 10 times in the second half, with Arkansas going ahead for good, 63-62, on senior guard Gary Ervin’s reverse layup with 3: 10 left.

Two free throws by Vanderbilt sophomore guard Jermaine Beal cut Arkansas’ lead to 74-73 with 7. 3 seconds left, then Commodores fifth-year senior forward Ross Neltner called timeout.

That drew an automatic technical foul because Vanderbilt was out of timeouts, and Weems hit two more free throws to make it 76-73.

Weems was fouled again with 6. 9 seconds left and hit two free throws to clinch the victory.

“It was just one of those things,” Vanderbilt Coach Kevin Stallings, who had warned his players the team was out of timeouts, said about the technical. “I really and truly don’t know why we called that timeout. Our guys are usually very reliable. It’s the first time I’ve had a slip-up quite like that. But that’s OK.”

Arkansas Coach John Pelphrey said afterward he was grateful for the victory but also expressed frustration the Razorbacks can’t play on the road as they have at home this season.

“I’m happy that we won,” Pelphrey said. “But I’m not happy with this team.”

Pelphrey said he wants to see the same heart and toughness in road games the Razorbacks showed against Vanderbilt, which had won seven in a row, including beating No. 1 Tennessee on Tuesday night.

“Nobody loves playing at Bud Walton Arena more than I do. It’s electric,” Pelphrey said. “Maybe that’s why we do some of the things we do at home that we don’t do on the road.

“ But we’ve got to have a little more resolve, a little more character. We don’t need mommy cutting the corners off our bread all the time, OK ? We don’t need our chicken nuggets cut up so we can eat them in small pieces. Be men — and go play that way.”

Arkansas sophomore guard Patrick Beverley, who was a combined 3 of 19 from the field the previous two games at Kentucky and Alabama, scored 17 points Saturday, including hitting 5 of 7 three-point attempts.

“You have to give our fans a lot of credit,” Beverley said. “If it hadn’t been for them, we probably wouldn’t have won this game. They’re our sixth man.”

Razorbacks senior center Darian Townes made his first start of the season and had 13 points.

“You’ve got to lay it on the line,” Townes said. “You don’t get these days back.”

Ervin had 13 points, 7 assists, 4 rebounds and 1 turnover in 38 minutes. His rebound with 25. 8 seconds left — after Vanderbilt missed five shots and a tip attempt on the same possession — was among the game’s biggest plays. He then hit two free throws for a 72-68 Arkansas lead.

“Nobody hung their head. They all kept playing and they kept trying to get a stop, and they did,” Pelphrey said of that critical sequence. “[Ervin ] jumped as high as he has all year and got the ball. He wanted that rebound.”

Vanderbilt got 22 points from senior forward Shan Foster, 20 from freshman center A. J. Ogilvy and 14 from Neltner to keep pressure on Arkansas.

The Razorbacks shot a seasonhigh 58. 3 percent from the field (28 of 48 ), including 64 percent in the first half (16 of 25 ) in taking a 40-36 lead.

“They made some shots they hadn’t been making,” Stallings said. “You have to congratulate them for stepping up and making big plays and making more plays at the end than we were able to make.”

Stallings dropped to 0-5 as a visiting coach in Walton Arena and 2-8 against the Razorbacks.

“They’ve got a lot of talent,” Stallings said when asked about Arkansas’ recent domination in the series. “I think if you lined up their talent and lined up our talent, I’m not so sure most coaches wouldn’t take their talent.

“ They’re a very talented team. That’s why we’ve had trouble with them.”