That rickety ride Nolan Richardson used to talk about when he was the head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks was on display Saturday at Mississippi State.
And Mike Anderson -- like his mentor -- endured it, embraced it, survived it and moved on as quickly as possible.
The Razorbacks couldn't have been colder shooting if the game had been played at midnight in Fenway Park, and it wasn't just because of the Bulldogs' zone defense.
The Hogs missed layups, dunks, short jumpers and long jumpers, but in the end the difference was where they could make shots. The Razorbacks made 24 of 31 free throws to remain in sole possession of second place in the SEC.
The other thing the Razorbacks did right was play defense. They didn't force every one of the Bulldogs' 23 turnovers -- Mississippi State had only 22 field goals -- Arkansas had a hand in enough to get 23 points off the mistakes.
Plus the Hogs, who slipped seamlessly from man-to-man to zone and back, allowed the Bulldogs one free throw and no field goals from the 8:18 mark to the 0:33 mark, when Mississippi State made a three-pointer.
In that span the Bulldogs had four turnovers and missed five free throws as their 53-50 lead became a 60-54 deficit.
Still, it was a wild ending after the Hogs seemed to have it in hand with 42 seconds to play and a six-point lead.
But the Bulldogs made a three-pointer, the Hogs lost an inbound bounce pass from Michael Qualls to Rashad Madden, and the Bulldogs capitalized with a layup to cut the lead to 60-59 with 26 seconds remaining.
Qualls was fouled and made 1 of 2 free throws, but Anton Beard seemed to save the day when he made a steal with 15 seconds to go and was fouled.
He made both free throws, but Bobby Portis fouled with 7.7 seconds to play, and the Bulldogs converted both free throws to make it 63-61. But after a quick Bulldogs' foul, Qualls made both free throws, and the Razorbacks had survived to pick up their fifth SEC road victory of the season.
The Razorbacks might have had a much larger hill to climb if Arkansas' defense hadn't started clicking late in the first half.
The Hogs fell behind 21-15 after Jacorey Williams was called for an intentional foul -- a good call -- and with 7:56 to play in the first half, the Razorbacks frantically were searching for fields goals.
They weren't having any trouble finding and taking shots, but they made only five of their first 19 attempts. At one point, they missed 17 consecutive field goals.
Mississippi State came in with a good game plan -- pound it inside -- and it was 9 of 15 from the floor, with six of those field goals coming in the paint.
Then Portis missed a dunk off a perfect pass from Beard, and as Beard fought for the rebound, a Bulldog inadvertently got an arm around his neck. It wasn't intentional, but after the Razorbacks freshman made both free throws, the Hogs went to work.
The Bulldogs went from shooting 60 percent from the floor to 45 percent as they made four of their final 14 attempts. The Hogs also were forcing turnovers down the stretch and temporarily found their range, making five of their last seven shots to go into halftime trailing 33-32 thanks to 15 points off turnovers. Beard was 2 for 2, including 1 for 1 on three-pointers, and 2 for 2 from the line.
He did spend several minutes on the bench with his second foul, but that was an indication of the intensity the Hogs were playing with when they needed it the most.
It was a rickety ride, but that's always better than a smooth walk when victory is on board.
Sports on 02/22/2015