FAYETTEVILLE -- After carving through the LSU defense like butter for many of his 23 points Saturday, University of Arkansas forward Daniel Gafford diversified his scoring against Vanderbilt on Tuesday.
Gafford hit a career-high 10 free throws on 12 tries en route to a game-high 28 points in the Hogs' 69-66 victory at Walton Arena.
"I've just been working real hard on my free throws," Gafford said. "My mindset is I want to get better at the free-throw line. I don't want them to have the game plan of hack-a-Dan."
The Commodores employed almost permanent double teams, and some triple teams, against the 6-11 sophomore and made the going tough in the first half. Gafford hit 8 of 9 free throws in the first half as part of his 12 points.
Gafford had his first shot blocked by Saben Lee on the Hogs' first possession, and Simsola Shittu swatted his third shot several minutes later.
The El Dorado native got rolling early in the second half, scoring 10 of his team's first 13 points.
"Obviously, Daniel Gafford is one of the best bigs in the country," Vanderbilt Coach Bryce Drew said. "I think he's undervalued around the country. I really credit him for carrying that load."
Three-point lead
Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson chose not to foul Vanderbilt to set up two free throws for the Commodores with the Razorbacks ahead 69-66 in the final 7.6 seconds.
Vanderbilt crossed the half-court line with just under five seconds and got an open look for Matt Ryan on the right wing. Ryan's three-point shot went astray just before the final buzzer.
"It's just situational," Anderson said. "They were getting offensive rebounds. They shot free throws sometimes so bad that they were getting offensive rebounds.
"Sometimes you can out-coach yourself. So I said, 'You know what, we're going to guard these guys. We're just going to guard them and if he makes it, he makes it.' Can you imagine getting off the free-throw line, they get it, they kick it to a guy, and now he makes a four-point play? So it's just situational."
Joe's threes
Arkansas guard Isaiah Joe is in the fast lane in pursuit of the school's three-point shooting record by a freshman.
Joe canned 6 of 10 three-pointers for 18 points to push his total to 79 three-pointers. Rotnei Clarke owns the Arkansas freshman record with 83 three-pointers (on 211 shots) during the 2008-09 season.
Joe opened Arkansas' scoring with a three-pointer in the first minute, then made four three-pointers in a span of 2:17 late in the first half.
Board edge
Vanderbilt became the seventh consecutive SEC team to beat Arkansas in the rebounding department.
The Commodores held a 32-29 edge on the boards. The margin was a combined minus-48 in Arkansas' previous two games, victories over Georgia and at LSU. Both the Bulldogs and Tigers outrebounded the Hogs by 24.
Arkansas beat Texas A&M and Florida in rebounding in its first two SEC games, but the Hogs have not won that battle since.
3 sprees
Arkansas stretched its streak of games with a made three-pointer to 999 when Isaiah Joe connected from the right corner on a pass from Mason Jones on the Hogs' second possession at the 19:26 mark. The Razorbacks can make it 1,000 Saturday at South Carolina.
Vanderbilt has done even better in the marathon three-point streak sweepstakes. The Commodores extended their streak to 1,053 games when Aaron Nesmith found the mark from the top of the key at 18:10 to cut Arkansas' lead to 6-3.
Vanderbilt, UNLV and Princeton remain the only Division I schools who have made three-pointers in every game since the rule went into effect in 1986-87.
Bench aide
Vanderbilt's reserves outscored their Arkansas counterparts 23-10. Guard Joe Toye led the way with 18 points on 4-of-6 three-point shootings.
Razorback guard Keyshawn Embery-Simpson struck the biggest blow, hitting a three-pointer to put the Razorbacks up 67-66 with 14.8 seconds remaining.
Arkansas forward Gabe Osabuohien didn't score, but he drew a charging foul and came up with a key steal with the Razorbacks holding a 64-63 lead late in the game.
"I can't say enough about that steal Gabe had," Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson said. "That was a huge, huge steal for our basketball team."
Charging up
The Razorbacks drew a series of charging fouls, each by a different player during a sluggish section of the first half for Arkansas.
Gabe Osabuohien picked up the first, when Simsola Shittu lowered a shoulder and rammed him at the 12:44 mark. Daniel Gafford drew a charging call a couple of minutes later. Shittu was called again for colliding with Isaiah Joe moments later. Then Keyshawn Embery-Simpson ended the spree at the 5:30 mark by taking a charge from Saben Lee.
Shittu and Lee both ended the half with three fouls. Lee picked up his fourth at the 19:17 mark of the second half when he was whistled for charging into Joe.
Sills' falls
Arkansas freshman guard Desi Sills checked in at the 13:49 mark of the first half, his first action since going out with 12:55 left in the game during the Hogs' 90-89 victory at LSU on Saturday. Sills fouled Skylar Mays while trying to block a shot and landed hard on his side under the goal.
Sills took another rough tumble when he was hammered by Clevon Brown with 7:15 left in the first half while taking a shot Tuesday, landing hard on his left hip and arm. Vanderbilt chose Daniel Gafford to take Sills' foul shots as the freshman had his left wrist wrapped on the bench.
The 6-2 guard from Jonesboro returned for a short stint in the second half. He finished with two points in 11 minutes.
Sports on 02/06/2019