Arkansas had an answer to what felt like every punch Texas A&M threw for much of the second half Wednesday.
Then the Aggies owned the final five minutes and notched a 62-56 victory over the Razorbacks in Reed Arena. The loss dropped Arkansas to 17-9 overall and 6-7 in SEC play.
It was the third road loss in league play — Vanderbilt and Missouri were the others — in which the Razorbacks blew at least a 10-point lead. They led Texas A&M by 12 points in the closing seconds of the first half.
Arkansas also let a double-digit lead evaporate at South Carolina, but managed to escape with a two-point win.
The Razorbacks did not create their own breaks Wednesday. If anything, over and over they offered breaks to the Aggies down the stretch.
Texas A&M took full advantage and simultaneously denied Arkansas what would have been a quality road win, and perhaps its best of the season given the Aggies’ current standing in the SEC.
Arkansas coach Eric Musselman said this team — his eighth as a college head coach — has struggled like no other he has led in terms of closing games. At Texas A&M, shot selection, inability to convert and turnovers were costly.
Arkansas, which posted its second-lowest offensive efficiency rating of the season at 86.8, missed 7 of its last 8 shots in the final 6:08, and the lone field goal came from Anthony Black with 12 seconds remaining. Each of the misses were three-point attempts by Davonte Davis (0 of 4) and Ricky Council (0 of 3).
“I don't think we're a three-point shooting team, and we went 1 of 10 from three in the second half,” Musselman said. “Paint points are what we live on. Free throws attempted are what we live on, so that was an issue.”
Council did not attempt a three-pointer in the first 33-plus minutes of the game. Davis turned in a less-than-ideal last 5 minutes that included the 4 missed threes, 3 errant free throws, 2 turnovers and 1 steal.
Musselman, when asked about Davis’ overall performance in finishing with a team-high 14 points on 5 of 13 from the floor, essentially declined to comment.
Council had six points on 12 shots. Musselman said the entire team “struggled in the last five minutes of the game and most of the second half.”
Defensively, Davis allowed his matchup to hit 3 of 6 field goal attempts, including 3 of 4 beyond the arc. Musselman noted that the game began changing in Texas A&M’s favor when guard Hayden Hefner knocked down a three as time expired in the first half.
The Aggies inbounded the ball near the Arkansas bench with less than two seconds to play until halftime, and Davis got caught in traffic and allowed Hefner a clean look at a triple. It was the only shot he made in the game.
More defensive lapses occurred out of halftime. After the Razorbacks carried a 33-24 lead into the break, Texas A&M guard Wade Taylor got loose and hit them with 11 points in the opening 3:44 of the second half. Sixteen of his game-high 18 points came after halftime.
The Aggies knocked down 6 of 12 three-point looks. In the last week Arkansas' opponents have hit a combined 12 of 22 tries from deep, and the Razorbacks rank 13th in SEC games in defending the three at 36.5%.
On the flip side, Arkansas hit 5 of 16 threes and Davis matched a career high with 4 triples on 10 shots.
“I’ve said it all year long, if we don’t guard the three, we’re not going to win games,” Musselman said.
The Razorbacks used a 9-0 run late in the first half to build their 12-point lead. And the Aggies responded with a 14-4 burst out of halftime.
Musselman has often said the team that owns two of the game’s three big runs wins at a high rate. The Razorbacks led 53-51 with 5:54 left, but Texas A&M went on a 10-0 run over 4:09 and led by as many as 8 points with 20 seconds remaining.
“The other team goes on runs and we’re not very good right now of stopping the runs and stopping the bleeding,” said Black, who had 9 points, 8 assists and 2 steals. “I take responsibility in some of that as the game manager. I’ve got to find a way to bring us together and stop the bleeding.
“But around the 12-minute mark, that’s when we tend to give up a big run and we don’t…all three of those games, that’s kind of when we’ve given up a big run. We just have to do a better job of managing the lead.”