Good look no good for ORU

Oral Roberts created a good play with 3.1 seconds remaining for its final shot, and ace scorer Max Abmas got a solid look at what would have been a game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer.

Abmas took an inbounds pass from unguarded Kareem Thompson while curving from right to left in the back court. Arkansas guard Davonte Davis guarded Abmas on the catch and on his drive to the right wing. Davis was just off the left hip of Abmas, the nation’s leading scorer, as he pulled up for the clean look.

“Once they called a second timeout, we knew he was going to banana cut,” Davis said. “We just tried to make sure he’d catch the ball in front of us and not behind us. As you saw, he did that, but we tried not to foul him as well. So we did that, and we hoped that he didn’t make the shot.”

Abmas’ shot hit the rim at the buzzer.

“There’s nothing that I would have done different,” Abmas said. “I guess shoot it up a little more, but when it left my hand it felt good. It ended up coming up short, and we didn’t get the job done.”

Abmas shot was almost a copy of the three-point shot made by Loyola-Chicago that eliminated Coach Eric Musselman’s 2018 team at Nevada, 69-68, in the Sweet 16.

“Yeah, when they took the last three — against Loyola, it was a side-step three almost in the exact same spot on the floor,” Musselman said. “We had defended it perfectly, and they made the shot. We were probably one shot away from beating Loyola and being in the Elite Eight that year.

“I still think about that shot over and over. I guess tonight the basketball gods were looking over us.”

Trailers

Arkansas kept up its run of falling behind by double figures and rallying to win in every one of its NCAA Tournament games.

Oral Roberts forward Francis Lacis made a three-point shot from the right wing at the 18:14 mark to give the Golden Eagles a 42-32 lead, its first 10-point margin of the game. The advantage grew to 46-34 on Kareem Thompson’s pull-up jumper at 15:26.

Arkansas has won 11 games in which it trailed by nine or more points this season. The Hogs have trailed Colgate by 14 points, Texas Tech by 10 and Oral Roberts by 12.

“We’ve been a really, really good second-half team all year, and you’ve got to be able to make adjustments at halftime,” Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman said. “We basically resorted to our plan D coverage. I’m just glad we had a full week to go through multiple coverages.”

Arkansas trailed 35-28 at halftime.

“Regrouped again at halftime, changed up our defense a little bit more, where we wanted to trap and lead certain players,” Musselman said.

Musselman has five NCAA Tournament wins, and all of them have come after his Arkansas and Nevada teams trailed by at least 10 points.

Early ‘T’

Oral Roberts Coach Paul Mills drew a technical foul at the 16:10 mark while complaining about an offensive foul on Carlos Jurgens. Arkansas guard Moses Moody drew the offensive foul and made both technical free throws to give the Razorbacks a 4-3 lead.

“The game, losing is totally my fault,” Mills said. “I’ve gotten three technical fouls, including tonight’s, in my entire career. To get a technical when you lose by two, it’s a tough pill to swallow.”

Mills described the technical foul call to end his news conference.

“One, I don’t curse, so I never cursed,” he said. “There was a play earlier where Justin Smith ran over one of our guys, Kevin Obanor, and lowered the shoulder, and it was a no-call.

“So when … we got the same call, I just said, ‘That’s the same call.’ … And they said, ‘Well, you can’t yell.’ In my mind, it’s the only way that you can overcome the noise. You have to raise your voice. I just told him, ‘It’s the same call.’ That was it. And they gave me a technical foul.”

Board battle

Arkansas won the rebounding battle by a 46-35 margin, fueled largely by 18 offensive rebounds, 11 of them by Justin Smith.

Oral Roberts held a 21-20 edge on the boards at halftime, but Arkansas won that battle 26-14 after halftime to spark its second-half comeback.

In the earlier meeting between the teams, won 87-76 by Arkansas on Dec. 20, the Razorbacks dominated with a plus-26 rebounding edge at 58-32. Smith had 17 boards and Desi Sills 10 in the first meeting.

Throws down

In one key department, free-throw shooting, Arkansas beat Oral Roberts at its own game, and a long-ago team at Harvard celebrated that situation with a critical late miss by the Golden Eagles.

The Razorbacks made 13 of 15 free throws for 86.7%, outperforming the nation’s top free-throw shooting team, as the Golden Eagles went 10 of 13 (76.9%) from the stripe.

Oral Roberts entered the Sweet 16 having made 397 of 483 free throws, or 82.2%, a virtual tie with Harvard’s 1983-84 team, which held the NCAA single-season record at 82.18%.

The record lives, as the Golden Eagles finished 407 of 496, or 82.05%.

Had ORU forward Francis Lacis made both of his free throws with 31 seconds remaining instead of going 1 of 2, the Golden Eagles would have the record at 82.25%.

Colorado also made a run at the record this season before the Buffaloes had a free-throw shooting lull at the end of the season to finish at 81.9%.

Smith doubles up

Arkansas forward Justin Smith notched his sixth double-double of the season with 12 points and 14 rebounds.

Smith had to work for it too, making 6 of 14 shots and grabbing 11 offensive rebounds. For the first time since a win over Mississippi State on Feb. 2, Smith did not take a free throw.

The grad transfer also chipped in one assist and one steal in his 39 minutes.

Zoo great

The Razorbacks made a trip to the Indianapolis Zoo during its extended stay in Indiana’s capital for the NCAA Tournament. What made the visit stand out was it received a narration from longtime BBC host David Attenborough. The video segment was shown at halftime of Saturday’s first game between Loyola-Chicago and Oregon State.

For starters

Arkansas used the same starting lineup of guards Davonte Davis, Moses Moody and Jalen Tate, and forwards Justin Smith and Jaylin Williams for the second consecutive game.

Coach Eric Musselman played eight players against Oral Roberts, one more than he used for the Razorbacks’ second-round NCAA Tournament win over Texas Tech.