WACO, Texas -- All season long, Arkansas has built its women's team around a stingy defense.
The Razorbacks came up big on that end of the floor when they absolutely had to Friday, and the reward is a trip to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
No. 10 seed Arkansas trailed by as many as 13 to seventh-seeded Northwestern in the second half, but the Razorbacks finished the game on a 22-7 run and didn't allow a point over the final 3:59 for a stunning 57-55 victory at the Ferrell Center.
"There's not a greater compliment that a coach can have than with four minutes to go to look your guys in the eye and say, 'Look, who are we? Why are we here? Because we defend our tails off and rebound the ball," Arkansas Coach Jimmy Dykes said. "If you do that for the next four minutes, we're going to win this game.
"That's a great deal of confidence."
The Razorbacks (18-13) will meet second-seeded Baylor on its home floor at 1:30 p.m. Central Sunday with a trip to the Sweet 16 on the line. The Lady Bears routed Northwestern State 77-36 in the second game Friday.
Kelsey Brooks led the Razorbacks with 15 points and Jessica Jackson scored 14 and added eight rebounds, but it was Melissa Wolff who gave the Wildcats the most problems with a 13-point, 15-rebound performance with nine of those boards coming on the offensive end.
The last of Wolff's rebounds came at a critical stage with 29 seconds left when she chased down a missed free throw by Jackson near the sideline and called timeout to save the possession with the Razorbacks clinging to a 56-55 lead.
Jhasmin Bowen -- who finished with 12 points -- was fouled and missed the front end of a one-and-one, so the Razorbacks didn't score off that hustle play, but it took away seven precious seconds from Northwestern.
"As the free throw was about to go up, I just had it in my head that whatever I had to do if she missed the shot to get it," Wolff said. "As I got it, I knew I was close to [the sideline] so I just called timeout."
Northwestern's Alex Cohen rebounded Bowen's miss, but she was surrounded and turned it over with 16 seconds to go, but again the Razorbacks failed to capitalize when Wolff missed two free throws. Nia Coffey gave the Wildcats one more shot when she took the rebound and drove the length of the floor for a jumper that was off the mark. Coffey rebounded her own miss but couldn't connect on her second chance, either.
Brooks finally pulled down the rebound with two seconds remaining and was fouled. She made her first free throw and missed the second, but the Wildcats (23-9) had no timeouts left so Christen Inman could only fling a desperation shot from beyond half court that landed around the three-point line as time expired.
"Obviously we're overwhelmed a little bit," Wolff said. "This is a big deal. It was our goal to make it to the NCAA Tournament, but our goal wasn't just to make it, but to succeed when we got there and get a couple of wins and get as far as we can."
Ashley Deary did a little bit off everything for Northwestern with 13 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals, and Alex Cohen also scored 13 points. Maggie Lyon and Coffey had 12 and 11 points, respectively.
The Wildcats were the ones making shots at the beginning of the second half, and they took control after the game was tied 23-23 at intermission.
It started with three consecutive layups at the outset of the half and ended with an 11-2 run with all of the scoring coming in the paint or at the free-throw line that pushed Northwestern's lead to 48-35 with 11:36 left.
Northwestern's defense forced Arkansas to use the entire 30-second shot clock and settle for jump shots late in the possession, and the Razorbacks didn't score a basket in the lane until Bowen's three-point play at the 14:41 mark of the second half.
That play seemed to loosen up the Northwestern defense, and Arkansas finished with 16 points inside.
"Coach told us to spread it out and get the ball inside," Jackson said. "I think we did have to be more aggressive."
Arkansas used a 14-3 run to cut Northwestern's lead to 51-49 with 5:48 to go, and it had several chances to tie the score or take the lead but missed open looks. Bowen finally got a layup to go down with 1:13 left off a pass from Calli Berna, who had six assists and settled down after two early turnovers in which Deary took the ball away from her in the open floor and had only one more the rest of the game.
Jackson split two free throws at the 30.5-second mark, and that proved to be the game-winner as the Razorbacks won their ninth consecutive first-round game in the NCAA Tournament.
"I liked where we were at halftime because I told them the pace, the flow, the tempo was exactly where we wanted it," Dykes said. "It's a rock fight. Arkansas is pretty good in rock fights, and that's what we ultimately turned it in to."
Sports on 03/21/2015