FAYETTEVILLE — Mired in one of the worst shooting slumps of his career, Arkansas shooting guard Patrick Beverley turned to the fairer sex for help.

“You know my girlfriend and my mother basically kind of forced me to get in the gym the last couple of days and spend an hour, hour and 30 minutes every night before I go to the dorm room to come back and shoot,” said Beverley, who entered Saturday’s critical game with Vanderbilt having missed 16 of his past 19 shots.

Beverley missed a pair of free throws, a three-pointer and another jumper in the opening moments against the Commodores before putting back his own miss to start his first big scoring game in nearly a month.

Beverley hit 5 of 7 three-pointers, including three in the final 4: 25, and scored 17 points to help the Razorbacks to a 78-73 victory.

ADVERTISEMENT

“It’s just confidence, you know,” said Arkansas guard Gary Ervin, who had 13 points and seven assists. “We know what he’s capable of doing, and he was in a shooting slump.... The biggest thing I can say about that whole situation is he’s got great character to come out every night after practice for an hour to get his touch back.”

Beverley’s performance helped back up the play of leading scorer Sonny Weems, who had 20.

“It does help the team when you get more than one guy scoring,” Arkansas Coach John Pelphrey said. “I thought Patrick had a tough start with some missed free throws, but his effort was tremendous, playing the right way. He kept playing ball. He kept attacking.”

Beverley made back-to-back three-pointers late in the first half, the second on a pass from Ervin to give Arkansas a 35-23 lead, its first 12-point edge in the game. The sophomore from Chicago had eight points at halftime, more than he had scored in three of the previous five games, when his scoring average dropped a full point, from 12. 2 per game to 11. 2.

“He’s an awfully good player,” Vanderbilt Coach Kevin Stallings said. “I’m surprised that as you look back at his last five games, he’s scored 11 once, then had a couple of fives and some not-verymanys. But today he got it fixed for sure.”

Beverley had a rough stretch again in the second half, committing two turnovers, missing a three-pointer and going scoreless for the first 15: 35 of the second half.

But he saved his best for last.

With the Razorbacks trailing 59-58 after a 4-0 Vanderbilt run, Beverley took a pass from Darian Townes and made a threepointer from the right wing at the 4: 25 mark. Twice more in the next two and a half minutes Beverley sank three-pointers with Arkansas clinging to one-point leads.

“Oh, man, it was lovely,” Weems said. “We did our best to get him open, and when he got open he knocked down shots. That’s what we need out of him.”

Beverley exhorted the crowd repeatedly down the stretch, as Vanderbilt Shan Foster kept hitting big shots to get the Commodores back into contention.

“It was just one of those days,” Beverley said. “The emotion was just in it. I know how special this basketball team can be. The way we played tonight, we haven’t shown that all season.”