Short-handed Team Arkansas won’t be making the trip to Atlanta.
Novar Gadson had 30 points as the 15th-seeded Talladega Knights downed the group of former Razorbacks 91-74 Sunday afternoon in the second round of The Basketball Tournament, a $2 million winner-take-all event televised on the ESPN network of channels.
“I work on my craft a lot,” noted Gadson, a former Rider star who was 12-of-16 from the field. “It’s just all results. I just put a lot of work and hours in the gym and it’s paid off.”
It was the third win in as many days at the Steinberg Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., for the Knights, who had to win a play-in game and now move on to Atlanta for next weekend’s Super 16 in the 72-team event featuring non-NBA players.
Michael Qualls led seventh-seeded Team Arkansas - which had just seven players available - with 24 points while Dusty Hannahs added 12, Alandise Harris 10, Rashad Madden 9, Ronnie Brewer 8, Moses Kingsley 6 and Jabril Durham 5.
The former Razorbacks were 25-of-63 from the field, 9-of-29 from 3-point range and 15-of-21 from the free throw line.
The Knights, the lowest-seeded team to advance to the Super 16 in the five years of the event, won the board battle 43-28, shot 57.6 percent (34 of 59) from the field and 62.5 percent (10-of-19) from 3-point range.