NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Senior guard Manny Watkins said before the Arkansas Razorbacks played Kentucky Sunday in the SEC Tournament final there was no love lost between the teams.
"They don't like us," Watkins said. "We don't like them."
That was abundantly clear in the final minutes of No. 8 Kentucky's 82-65 victory over the Razorbacks at Bridgestone Arena before an announced crowd of 19,953 that formed a sea of blue.
Malik Monk, the Wildcats' star freshman guard who grew up in Lepanto and played at Bentonville High School, made several throat slash gestures to go along with his 17 points.
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville senior guard Dusty Hannahs was called for a flagrant foul on a screen that knocked Kentucky guard Dominique Hawkins to the court with 1:20 left.
"I thought I stood my ground," said Hannahs listed at 6-3, 210. "I guess I'm a pretty strong dude."
Eighteen seconds later Razorbacks senior center Moses Kingsley was called for a flagrant foul when he knocked down Kentucky guard De'Aaron Fox as he drove the lane.
Kingsley's flagrant foul resulted in automatic ejection because he was called for a technical foul after arguing a call with official Doug Shows.
"It got chippy," Hannahs said. "Emotions got the best of us. We were both playing for a championship, so people are very emotional.
"We had a couple plays you wish you could take back in hindsight."
Kingsley said he thought Fox was trying to lob the ball over him to Bam Adebayo for a dunk.
"I feel like I followed through too much on it," he said of fouling Fox. "It looked bad. I wasn't trying to hurt him.
"It was frustrating that we were losing. We worked too hard to lose."
Kingsley was driving with the ball in the first half when he lost control of it and a Kentucky player grabbed it and Shows called for a jump ball.
Shows then called a technical foul when Kingsley protested the call, believing he was fouled.
"That's on me," Kingsley said. "I take full responsibility for it. I can't lose my cool like that."
Arkansas (25-9) didn't gain the SEC's automatic NCAA Tournament bid, but the Razorbacks were seeded eighth as an at-large selection in the South and will play Seton Hall Friday in Greenville, S.C.
Kentucky, which won its 30th SEC Tournament title and third in a row, will play Northern Kentucky.
Monk said he couldn't recall making throat-slashing gestures, but didn't deny doing it.
"I'll watch film," Monk said. "I probably did. Got caught up in the emotions. Basketball is a fun game. I'm just having fun out there."
Kentucky Coach John Calipari was asked in the postgame news conference about saying at various times this season he wanted to see how his team responded to be being punched in the mouth.
"I didn't mean literally," Calipari said.
Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson congratulated Kentucky and called it a hard-fought game.
"Both teams were going at it," Anderson said. "Sometimes the temperament gets out of hand.
"It was unfortunate. At the same time, I don't think anybody was intent on trying to hurt anybody."
Calipari said he expected a physical game from the Razorbacks.
"Arkansas is going to come after you and they're going to attack and play physical," Calipari said. "You're going to get a lot of touches, bumps, grabs.
"I'm not saying it's good or bad. It's what they do."
Hannahs said he didn't see Monk's throat slashing gestures.
"I could care less," said Hannahs, who scored 14 points. "I'm sure if other people on the team saw it, then it contributed to stuff that happened.
"Throughout the game other stuff happened, too."
Junior guard Daryl Macon, who led the Razorbacks with 18 points and was named to the all-tournament team,* said he wasn't paying attention to Monk.
"My mind was so focused on the game," Macon said. "I guess he was excited he hit a shot. Congrats to him.
"What you saw at the end, that wasn't us. We kind of lost our composure and we've just got to get it back."
Watkins said Arkansas-Kentucky games are always heated.
"It's competitive," Watkins said. "On top of that, it was a championship game.
"Just a lot of emotion in a game and everybody is wanting it really bad."
Kentucky outscored the Razorbacks 13-0 over the final 3:17 of the first half and first 50 seconds of the second half as the Wildcats pushed their lead to 46-30.
The Wildcats led by as many 19 points before the Razorbacks cut their deficit to 73-64 with 1:32 left.
Fox led Kentucky with 18 points and was voted the SEC Tournament MVP. Adebayo had 17 points and nine rebounds.
Arkansas junior guard Jaylen Barford scored 13 points Sunday and 44 in the Razorbacks' three games,̶ ̶m̶a̶d̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶a̶l̶l̶-̶t̶o̶u̶r̶n̶a̶m̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶t̶e̶a̶m̶.*
"There are no moral victories, but at least we got to the championship game," Hannahs said. "It's tough to lose.
"We really thought we were going to win. We've just got to turn the page quickly. Now we've got another big title to play for this coming week."
Sports on 03/13/2017
*CORRECTION: University of Arkansas, Fayetteville junior guard Daryl Macon was named to the All-SEC Tournament team. The wrong all-tournament player was listed in a previous version of this story.