Arkansas overcame a 15-point deficit after halftime and a collapse in the final minute of regulation to defeat Vanderbilt 90-85 in overtime Wednesday in the first round of the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament.
The Razorbacks (16-16) advanced to play No. 15 South Carolina on Thursday at approximately 2:30 p.m. at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. The winner of that game will play Friday against No. 11 Auburn in the quarterfinals.
Arkansas must win five games in five days at the SEC Tournament to extend its season to the NCAA Tournament next week. The Razorbacks added five minutes to that tall task when they could not overcome Vanderbilt’s full-court press in the closing minutes of regulation.
“We’ve got a team full of tough guys, resilient guys,” Arkansas guard Khalif Battle told SEC Network. “Things never went our way this year, but it’s still March and anything can happen. We’ve been working hard and we’ve been in close games, and now we’ve got to finish it out and show what we can do.”
VIDEO: Eric Musselman, players recap Arkansas' win over Vanderbilt
Ezra Manjon scored four points in the final 13.2 seconds for the Commodores (9-23) to force overtime. His layup with 13.2 seconds remaining cut Arkansas’ lead to 78-76.
Following a steal by Malik Presley on a bad pass by Battle, Manjon hit a contested shot at the buzzer from near the free-throw line to force overtime.
The Razorbacks used a 10-1 run in overtime to put away Vanderbilt. Trevon Brazile’s three-pointer with 2:50 remaining put Arkansas ahead for good at 83-80.
Makhi Mitchell added a layup with 2:07 remaining on a pick-and-roll with Battle, and Battle’s three-point play with 1:39 to play gave the Razorbacks an 88-81 lead.
Battle scored 24 points to lead Arkansas. He went 13 of 14 at the free-throw line and the Razorbacks were 23 of 26 as a team.
Arkansas trailed 51-36 when Presley completed a three-point play with 16:55 remaining in the second half. But the Razorbacks responded with an 8-0 run to kickstart a relatively quick comeback.
“We did a really good job in the second half and mixed up our defenses,” Arkansas coach Eric Musselman said on SEC Network. “We went to a trapping defense that quite frankly we haven’t run…much this year. We did it all the time the last four years. The guys did a great job of leaving the players [open] we wanted to leave. We tried to get the ball out of their primary scorers’ hands.”
Battle’s two free throws with 8:41 remaining tied the game at 58-58. From there the game had five ties and four lead changes in regulation.
Mitchell’s layup with 4:30 remaining put Arkansas ahead 70-68. That began another 8-0 stretch that allowed the Razorbacks to seemingly to take control.
Arkansas scored six consecutive points at the line between the 4:03 and 2:11 mark in the second half. Davonte Davis, Battle and Mitchell all made a pair of free throws to give the Razorbacks a 76-68 lead.
Vanderbilt’s full-court press gave Arkansas fits in the final two minutes, though, and gave the Commodores a chance at the end. The Razorbacks committed two turnovers in the final 1:39 and avoided a third turnover when the possession arrow favored Arkansas after a jump ball.
Manjon’s transition layup with 49.9 seconds remaining cut the deficit to 76-74. Tramon Mark missed a three-pointer with 21 seconds remaining, but El Ellis rebounded the miss and Battle made two free free throws with 17.8 seconds left to extend the lead to 78-74.
Then Manjon’s heroics forced overtime.
Manjon led all scorers with 29 points on 12-of-19 shooting. Ven-Allen Rubin added 21 for the Commodores.
Mark and Mitchell each scored 18 points for the Razorbacks, and Brazile had a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double.
Arkansas shot 48.4% in the second half after struggling to 37% in the first half. The Razorbacks made 6 of their first 10 three-point shots after halftime to spur the comeback.
The game’s first 12 minutes were back-and-forth, but Vanderbilt used a 10-0 run to go ahead 37-25 with 3:43 left in the first half. Manjon’s step-back jumper at the first-half buzzer gave the Commodores a 41-27 lead at halftime.
In the halftime locker room, Musselman told the team it was playing “soft,” according to Battle.
“We took it personal from there,” Battle said on SEC Network. “We challenged a lot of guys in the locker room and we had to stand up to the challenge, and I think we did.”
Mark, also speaking on SEC Network, said there was a quick players-only meeting after the coaches walked out of the locker room for the second half.
“We just called out each other basically,” Mark said. “That fired us up.
“Everybody had something to say, and it was good because we came out there with a chip on our shoulder in the second half.”
Musselman said he spoke with the team about ball security at halftime. Vanderbilt scored 12 points off of 10 Arkansas turnovers in the first half.
“It’s like a football team — you can’t turn the ball over with fumbles and interceptions,” Musselman said. “Ball security was pathetic in the first half, defense was pathetic in the first half, but a lot of resiliency in the second half and then into overtime.”
The Razorbacks avenged an 85-82 home loss to Vanderbilt on Feb. 27. Arkansas will also be looking for a measure of revenge against South Carolina, the No. 5 seed at the tournament. The Gamecocks won 77-64 in Fayetteville on Jan. 20.
Musselman said he anticipates as many as three film sessions Wednesday night to get ready for South Carolina.
“We’ve got to get ready for what’s one of the best teams in the country,” Musselman said. “It’s a team that’s really well-coached, a team that understands their roles.
“We felt like when we played South Carolina at Bud Walton that we were not right at the time. I think we’re playing much better basketball right now, and so are they. [The Gamecocks] are 4-1 in their last five, so we’ve got to bring our ‘A’ game.”
Why Arkansas won
The Razorbacks showed poise when down big early in the second half and again when they blew things in the final minutes of regulation. An 88% showing from the free-throw line helped.
Player of the Game: Arkansas G Khalif Battle
As he has for the past three weeks, Battle put the Razorbacks on his shoulders and carried the team.
Battle scored 21 points in the 25 minutes after halftime. He made 5 of 9 field goal attempts and 10 of 11 free throws in the second half and overtime.
Battle contributed 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals and committed 4 turnovers. Three of his turnovers came in the first half, but his last set up the shot that forced overtime.
Tournament tidbits
• Arkansas improved to 6-1 against Vanderbilt at the SEC Tournament. That ties Georgia (6-3) as the opponent the Razorbacks have beaten most at the event. The average margin of victory in an Arkansas-Vanderbilt tournament game is 6.1 points.
• The Razorbacks played an overtime game at the SEC Tournament for the first time since an 84-79 victory over Mississippi State in 1999. Arkansas is 2-1 in overtime games at the tournament. The Razorbacks lost 95-93 to Kentucky in the championship game in 1995. Both overtime games prior to Wednesday were played in Atlanta.
• Arkansas has an all-time record of 31-30 at the SEC Tournament, including 10-10 in Nashville.
• The Razorbacks are 2-0 in Wednesday games at the SEC Tournament, with both wins coming over Vanderbilt. The Razorbacks defeated the Commodores 86-73 in the first round of the 2020 tournament to set up a second-round matchup with South Carolina, but the tournament was canceled the following day due to the coronavirus outbreak.