Arkansas guard Jalen Tate made it abundantly clear with his play Saturday that he did not want the Razorbacks’ season to come to an end in the Sweet 16.
The graduate-transfer guard from Northern Kentucky turned in arguably his best performance of the season on the offensive end in Arkansas’ thrilling 72-70 win over 15-seed Oral Roberts. What isn’t up for debate is that it was his most important.
Tate scored a team-high 22 points on 9 of 17 shooting, handed out 6 assists and grabbed 4 rebounds for the Razorbacks. Not only did he find freshman Davonte Davis for the game-winning score with 3.1 seconds remaining after running off a ball screen in the middle of the floor, but Tate’s shot making down the stretch was critical.
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He made the team’s only three-pointer. Arkansas knocked down only 1 of 9 attempts, a season low in both categories.
“He hit huge shots,” said Razorbacks coach Eric Musselman, who improved to 15-0 at Arkansas in games in which his team had four or more days to prepare. “Just his size against their guards, that was one of the focal points of the game plan offensively was to try to, you know, with our bigger guards, was to score it. We needed him to play well.”
Tate answered the call from the coaching staff.
In the final 5:01 of the game, the veteran guard made all four of his field goal attempts, and they each gave the Razorbacks the lead. He opened the second half by missing five of his first six shots after a 10-point first half.
Tate scored 12 points in the second half as Arkansas mounted its comeback from down 46-34 less than four minutes after halftime, and 10 came in the final six minutes. Tate’s final bucket, a jumper in the lane, came just moments after he fouled Golden Eagles forward Kevin Obanor as he made a layup with 1:48 remaining.
Obanor completed the three-point play and gave Oral Roberts a 69-68 lead. Tate, though, as he did throughout the night, stepped up for the Razorbacks.
Initiating offense on the left side of the floor, Tate successfully backed down and scored over Golden Eagles guard Max Abmas, who at 6-1 had little chance to alter the 6-6 guard’s shot.
Tate’s 22 points were his second most in a game this season, and it was his second 22-point effort in March. Tate also scored 22 points on 9 of 17 shooting against Texas A&M in Arkansas’ regular-season finale in Bud Walton Arena.
His season high was 25 at Vanderbilt in January.
“He’s amazing,” Davis, who finished with 16 points, said of Tate. “He played well, and he was scoring the ball. We needed that spark, and he did it. Down the stretch, he contributed for us.”
Saturday was also Tate’s best day distributing the basketball in quite some time. His six assists were his most in a game since he had eight against Vanderbilt.
Tate totaled six assists in the Razorbacks’ first two NCAA Tournament games combined. His passes generated 13 points for Arkansas on Saturday. He found Davis for three scores, Moses Moody twice and Jaylin Williams once to begin the game.
His final assist keyed one of the more memorable moments in the last two-plus decades of Razorbacks basketball.
“And the last play of our possession, he drove, and (ORU defenders) came in,” Davis said. “He kicked it out to me.
“I stayed composed, and I knocked the shot down.”