BUFFALO, N.Y. — There was plenty of March Madness at KeyBank Center on Thursday night, but the University of Arkansas Razorbacks avoided it.
The No. 4 seed Razorbacks avoided an upset when they held on to beat No. 13 seed Vermont 75-71 in a first-round NCAA Tournament game on the same court where Richmond beat Iowa and New Mexico State beat Connecticut.
“You know coming in that every possession, we’re going to have to fight,” said senior guard Stanley Umude, who playing in his first NCAA Tournament game led the Razorbacks with 21 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists while playing 40 minutes without a turnover. “I don’t think we came in relaxed or anything.
“We came in ready to go, and I think the upsets going around, it’s March, so we just have to be ready.”
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Razorbacks All-American senior guard JD Notae was limited to 27 minutes because of foul trouble, but he added 17 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists.
“This tournament there is nothing guaranteed,” Notae said. “Everybody is trying to win. So with that, we just have to come out there and play from the jump to the finish.”
Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman, who wore a heating pad on his surgically repaired left shoulder after the game, said the Razorbacks had a business-like reaction to the beating Vermont.
“We expected to win the game,” Musselman said. “We expected it to be a hard-fought game, but we came here to win.
“We didn’t celebrate tonight in the locker room like maybe we have in the past. I think we felt like we should win tonight.”
Arkansas (26-8) advanced to play New Mexico State, which beat Connecticut 70-63. Tipoff of the Arkansas-New Mexico State game will be 7:40 p.m. Saturday.
“Obviously, disappointing with our season ending, but I couldn’t be more proud of my team and the way they competed tonight,” Vermont Coach John Becker said. “We could have shot free throws better. We wish we could have rebounded a little bit better at the end.
“But these guys left it all out on the court against a really, really good Arkansas team.”
The Razorbacks held on to win by hitting 8 of 10 free throws in the final 2:58.
Notate hit 4 of 5 free throws, including 2 with 9 seconds left to give Arkansas a 4-point lead and clinch the victory.
Umude hit 2 of 2 free throws with 23 seconds left to put the Arkansas ahead 73-68.
“It’s just a credit to them,” said Catamounts senior forward Ryan Davis, who scored 20 points and hit 4 of 5 three-pointers. “That’s a clutch situation. Being able to knock down those free throws is huge.
“Obviously, you’re hoping for a miss, but that’s their job to go knock those down, so credit to them.”
The Razorbacks hit 20 of 25 free throws for the game to 10 of 17 by Vermont.
Arkansas finished with a 39-32 rebounding edge and had five turnovers, its fewest ever in an NCAA Tournament game.
Razorbacks sophomore forward Jaylin Williams had 13 points and 10 rebounds and sophomore guard Davonte “Devo” Davis had 14 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals off the bench.
“Just a ton of credit to Vermont,” Musselman said. “They’re so well-coached. They understand their roles. They play really hard.
“They’re a really smart basketball team. They can shoot the three and present a lot of problems in preparation, but I thought our guys to a man stepped up big-time with JD getting into foul trouble in the first half.
“Devo Davis stepped up huge and saved us with his ability to score and also run our offense tonight. And Stan was phenomenal.”
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Vermont senior guard Ben Shungu, who scored 20 points, hit a three-pointer to pull the Catamounts within 73-71 with 12.4 seconds left.
Notae caught the inbounds pass and was double-teamed in the corner when the ball went out of bounds.
Officials initially called the ball out on Notae, but then reversed the call after a video review and awarded possession to the Razorbacks.
“I thought it was out on me, honestly,” Notae said. “I’m not going to [lie] to you.”
Finn Sullivan then was called for grabbing Notae before the ball was inbounded.
The Razorbacks’ last field goal was short jump shot by Notae that gave Arkansas a 67-58 lead with 4:26 left.
The game had 9 ties and 9 lead changes, the last of which came on 2 free throws by Umude that put Arkansas ahead 52-51 with 9:34 left.
Arkansas, which reached the Elite Eight last season with victories over Colgate, Texas Tech and Oral Roberts in Indianapolis, won first-round NCAA Tournament games in back-to-back years for the first time since 1998-99 when the Razorbacks beat Nebraska and Siena.
Notae scored all of his 17 points in the second half.
“Just got to be more aggressive,” Notae said of his first-half struggles. “I feel like I settled too much in the first half.
“Second half, I got downhill a little more, made plays for my teammates.”
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Notae scored on a drive to give Arkansas a 36-27 lead with 19:29 to play.
Justin Mazzulla’s layup pulled Vermont within 36-29.
Notae then drew his third foul at the 18:47 mark and went to the bench.
Ryan Davis hit a three-pointer, Shungu scored on a bank shot and Davis hit a jumper to tie it 36-36 with 16:15 left.
Notae came back into the game and Ryan Davis hit a three-pointer
Vermont senior guard Robin Duncan scored on a drive to tie the game 27-27 with 1:46 left in the first half.
Arkansas then scored seven consecutive points in the final 1:14 of the half to take a 34-27 lead.
Williams started the rally by hitting a reverse layup with the shot clock running down after catching a pass from Davis to put the Razorbacks ahead 29-27.
After a miss by the Catamounts, Umude hit a three-pointer on another assist by Davis.
Williams drew his 50th charge of the season when Vermont senior guard Ben Shungu knocked him over on a drive to the lane with 5.9 seconds left in the half.
The Razorbacks took possession and senior guard Chris Lykes drove to the basket and was fouled by Duncan.
Lykes hit both free throws with 2.9 seconds left in the half to put Arkansas ahead 34-27.