Stackhouse, Vanderbilt savor rare win in Arkansas

Vanderbilt coach Jerry Stackhouse is shown during a game against Arkansas on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022, in Fayetteville.

It came with a few nervous minutes late, but  Vanderbilt’s 75-74 victory at Arkansas on Tuesday is one Commodores coach Jerry Stackhouse will savor.

It was his program’s first win in an SEC opener since 2016 and halted a 16-game winning streak by Arkansas at Bud Walton Arena. 

The Commodores, who had only nine scholarship players available, ended a seven-game losing streak to the Razorbacks. 

“I thought it was a tough win, a great win for our program and a great win for our guys,” said Stackhouse, who is in his third season at Vandy. “They worked extremely hard throughout this game. We were down some bodies. The rest of our guys gutted it out, played a lot of heavy minutes. 

“It wasn’t as pretty as we’d have liked it to be down the stretch, but at the end of the day we made tough, hard plays at the end and were able to secure the win. I’m really proud of our group.”

Arkansas guard Chris Lykes, who had made all 31 free-throw attempts in the final three minutes of games this season, missed the second of two free throws that would have tied the game with 20 seconds left.

Lykes rebounded the missed free throw, but Jaxson Robinson, Stanley Umude and JD Notae all came up empty on shots in the final 11 seconds that would have given the Razorbacks the lead. 

Playing with his dad sitting courtside, Vanderbilt's Scotty Pippen Jr. had 22 points, 3 assists and 7 turnovers before fouling out out with 41.6 seconds left and his team ahead 75-70. 

 “Man, I think there’s some things we need to improve on and we need to get a little smarter coming down the stretch, especially when we’ve got four fouls,” Stackhouse said. “Scotty’s foul wasn’t the smartest foul, especially with him having four. He can’t put himself in that position to take himself out of the game. 

“Down the stretch we had a little fortune. They missed a free throw. They had an opportunity at the end to make a shot....Guys came in the game and made contributions at different times, so there’s definitely some growth there. I’m excited."

Pippen felt like the Commodores (9-4, 1-0 SEC) came in confident while riding a three-game winning streak.

“I said a couple of days ago that we felt more confident about coming into SEC play, and tonight it wasn’t prettiest win, but we got the job done and showed off that our hard work was turning into progression,” Pippen said. “That was a big win us to start the conference off right, especially on the road.”

Vanderbilt had not played since a 69-67 win over BYU in the Hawaiian Airlines Classic in Honolulu on Dec. 23. The championship game against Stanford scheduled for the following day was canceled. 

“We’re still building from the momentum we had on the Hawaii trip and now getting this first win on the road in league play is a good start for us,” Stackhouse said. “We’re still a work in progress, and the most important thing is getting healthy.”

Arkansas shot 62.5% before intermission and led 40-31 late in the opening half, but that was cut to 40-35 at the halftime buzzer when Pippen scored on a side-out in bounds pass.

“Yeah, it wound up being the game-winning play, so it just shows you the value the importance of execution and I thought we executed that to a T,” Stackhouse said. “Really Tyrin (Lawrence) isn’t the guy we normally have making that play. We’ve had a play similar to that where we’ve gotten him loose for a layup, but that’s from the baseline.

 “This time we had Trey (Thomas) come through the gate as a decoy, then Scotty took off (for) the basket. Tyrin made a hell of a pass and we were able to complete it. Like I said, it wound up being the difference in the game.”

Vanderbilt scored 11 of the second half’s first 15 points to complete a 15-4 run and take a 46-44 lead.

Umude led Arkansas with a game-high 28 points — including 22 in the opening half — while Au’Diese Toney added 20 and Notae 16 in his first game back from an illness.

“I thought we held most of those guys in check,” Stackhouse said. “Umude had an unbelievable first half and he wound up with 28 for the game. I thought otherwise we did a pretty good job in our half-court defense. 

“We weren’t really sharp with the ball. We had nine turnovers for 16 points in the first half. That’s something we have to try to clean up and make sure we don’t beat ourselves."

Arkansas guard Davonte “Devo” Davis did not score and had three turnovers in just nine minutes of foul-plagued action.

“I think it was so much really getting into him and doing some things and other guys were going,” Stackhouse said. “I think Umude, that was probably the best game he has had so far. I have watched a number of games. He is very capable, but this was definitely his best game scoring the ball. When somebody else is scoring there is only a certain amount of possessions. That takes away from other guys.

“Notae, he was a focal point for us and I thought we did a good job holding him to 6 of 17 (overall) and 1 of 7 from (three-point range). Robinson was  another guy that we were really worried about. He had been shooting the ball well. He was only 1 of 5 from three.

“Toney is another guy that we were very aware of. He had another good game for them.”