Jaylen Barford and Dusty Hannahs were the players of the game
Really there were about five players who could have won this award for Arkansas (17-5, 6-3) in its win over Alabama, but Barford and Hannahs combined to score 25 of the team's 33 points during a second half run that delivered a knockout punch to the Tide.
With the Razorbacks up just 39-33 early in the second half, Barford went from being scoreless to scoring nine straight points. That jump-started the Razorbacks on a big run that eventually grew the lead to 27 points.
“Yes, I tend to do that a lot,” Barford said. “Actually some times I get caught sleeping in the first half maybe and I just have to wake myself up or get woke up by somebody else and just push it and keep being aggressive.”
Barford scored all 13 of his points and Hannahs knocked down four 3-pointers during a 33-15 run run that put Arkansas up 72-48 with 7:39 left in the game.
“I just thought we were really pushing the tempo and I know that we had zero fast break points at halftime and we wanted to change that in the second half,” Hannahs said. “We really started to push it and rebound the ball and that led us to some easy shots.”
Barford also gave credit to the defense.
“Back to what Dusty said, I think it just started with defense,” Barford said. “Just hold ourselves accountable on both ends of the floor. Of course, we didn’t have no fast break points at the end of the first half and that is not us as a team. We had to pick that up in the second half.”
Hannahs scored a team-high 19 points while Barford not only had 13 points, but 5 rebounds and 4 assists.
Hannahs had missed all nine 3-pointers he had taken in the last two games, but was 5-of-6 on Wednesday with the only miss being one that was blocked. It was quickly returned to him for a make from the same spot.
“It felt really good,” Hannahs said. “I guess I was 0-for-something. It felt really good to shoot and make them and I guess the one I missed was blocked.
“I guess just trust the process and trust the shooting and keep shooting the ball when streaks like that happen.”
Manny Watkins’ 10 first-half points kept Arkansas’ head above water even as the rest of the team was struggling offensively
Watkins suddenly has become an offensive force as he knocked down a pair of 3-pointers and 4-of-8 free throws to lead his team to a 35-27 lead at the break.
“I call him a blue-collar player, but he's turning that into a white collar as well,” Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said. “So he's doing multiple things for this basketball team. He's a senior. These guys lean on guys like he and Anton and Moses and even Trey, because they've been through it.
“He was big in the first half, and even in the second half I can distinctly remember one play where I think we either had a turnover or a quick shot and he runs the ball down, gets it, and here we come on the other end where and got an alley-oop or a dunk or something. Right then and there, you could just see the energy level go up two more notches.”
Arkansas needed to bounce back after a humbling loss at Oklahoma State and it did in style
The Razorbacks perhaps played their best all-around game against a Crimson Tide team that had won 8 of its last 10 games and was 6-2 in SEC play coming into the game.
“I thought from start to finish with our guys they brought it,” Anderson said. “They brought the energy. They brought the defense. The intensity on defense.
“I can’t say enough about our guys. They bounced back coming off a tough loss and had a great crowd and great energy. For 40 minutes I thought it was entertaining basketball.”
Arkansas has won an SEC-best five conference games in a row and has a stretch upcoming that could easily push the streak to eight games.
The Razorbacks will travel to Missouri (5-15, 0-8) on Saturday for a 5 p.m. game and then hosts Vanderbilt (11-11, 4-5) on Tuesday, followed by a trip to LSU (9-12, 1-8) the following Saturday.
Recent bracket projections from ESPN and CBS have Arkansas in the NCAA Tournament e as anywhere from an 8 to a 10 seed.
Anderson’s motto might as well be ‘Just Win, Baby’
“We always kind of pride ourselves on we're a second half team,” Anderson said. “So when that last 10, 11 minutes come, we're going to try to kill that ant with a sledgehammer. I thought tonight we did some of those things.
“We've still got some room for improvement, but I just like the mindset, the energy, what our guys brought tonight.”