FAYETTEVILLE — Coty Clarke saved his best performance of the season for one of Arkansas’ most critical games.
Clarke logged a team-high 28 minutes and filled up the stat sheet with a bunch of hustle plays, including six offensive rebounds, to help the Razorbacks defeat Kentucky 73-60 at Walton Arena.
Clarke finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds - his first game with at least 10 of each - and added a teambest 6 assists and 3 steals.
“He’s playing with a lot of confidence now, and that’s normally the trend with junior-college players,” Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson said. “When they start figuring it out, they start kind of enforcing their will on a team.”
Clarke made 4 of 5 from the field and 6 of 7 from the free-throw line.
The 6-7, 225-pounder played a kind of point-forward role from the high post and led the charge on the offensive glass, where Arkansas grabbed 20 rebounds, their best in a conference game this season.
“We weren’t as tough as them,” Kentucky Coach John Calipari said.
Clarke said he has daily discussions with forward Marshawn Powell about how he can improve.
“Like I tell everybody, I feed off of Marshawn,” Clarke said. “I know he’s going to gethis respect, and I know he’s going to get his double-teams, so I’ve got to come out and make plays in order for us to be successful, to free him up and BJ [Young] up as well and get the floor spaced.”Clarke turned his first offensive rebound into a 19-foot jumper for Arkansas’ first points of the game, then dunked for the Hogs’ next field goal. In the second half, Clarke turned an offensive rebound into a baby hook and a three-point play, and he followed with a pair of free throws as his five consecutive points helping spark a 14-4 run that turned a five-point game into a 59-44 lead, Arkansas’ biggest of the game.
Clarke, Powell and others simply ripped offensive rebounds away from the Wildcats on a couple of occasions.
“Normally it’s just mano a mano- I’m taking the ball out of your hands - which happened about, what, five times, seven times today?” Calipari said. “It’s my guy, their guy, and their guy just saying, ‘Give me the ball,’ and then I’d have to sub.”
Clarke topped his previous high in assists by two, setting up a three-pointer by Fred Gulley to open Arkansas’ second-half scoring, then feeding Powell for an old fashioned three-point play and a 43-31 lead a few minutes later.
“I knew I was quicker than a couple of guys that were guarding me, so when I saw a couple of times Marshawn or somebody else open, I just got them the ball and they made the plays after that,” Clarke said.
“That’s what I see every day in practice,” Powell said of Clarke’s all-around game. “I told him, in order for us to be real good ... people can’t just focus on me or BJ, so I mean, he’s picking it up and he’s showing you what he can do.”
Sports, Pages 34 on 03/03/2013