Arkansas basketball's ugly finish doesn't diminish sweet taste of victory for John Calipari
Jackson Fuller
- The Arkansas Razorbacks defeated the South Carolina Gamecocks 72-68 in the first round of the SEC Tournament despite a poor shooting performance in the second half.
- Arkansas led by as many as 20 points in the game, but South Carolina was able to tie the game late in the second half.
- D.J. Wagner hit a clutch three-pointer with just over two minutes remaining to give Arkansas a late lead.
There was nothing pretty about the way Arkansas basketball finished off a 72-68 win over South Carolina in the first round of the SEC Tournament.
The Razorbacks let a 20-point lead evaporate Wednesday, going nearly 12 minutes without a made field goal in the second half. Multiple scoreless droughts let the Gamecocks claw back in Nashville, Tennessee, eventually trimming the big deficit to just one point.
But when the final buzzer sounded, the Hogs were still on top, and that's all John Calipari cares about in the midst of a roller-coaster season that now feels destined to include a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
"We have a bunch of guys that compete and did what they had to do win the game, so I'm happy," Calipari said. "Would you like to have it a big score? Yeah, but at this time of the year, everybody is fighting for their lives."
The Razorbacks entered the tournament on the right side of the March Madness bubble, but a second loss to last-place South Carolina in as many weeks would have thrown their status back into uncertain waters. Arkansas could have gone on the chopping block if enough bid-stealers secured conference tournament titles by the end of the weekend.
That pressure may have played a role in the disastrous second half. Arkansas led 54-34 with 17:08 remaining when the offensive wheels fell off. The Hogs struggled to create good looks, and even when they did, layups and 3-pointers alike would not fall. They shot 32% with eight turnovers in the final 20 minutes.
A 14-point first half doomed Arkansas in the regular-season meeting with South Carolina, and it felt like a similar second-half failure would yield a familiar result.
But in the closing stretch, two veterans made decisive plays. The first was a 3-pointer from D.J. Wagner with 2:37 remaining. It ended a 7:59 run without a point, which allowed South Carolina to cut the deficit to just one. After Wagner's shot, there was more breathing room with a four-point lead. Wagner finished with 13 points and seven assists.
"It felt good, just seeing I had the open shot," Wagner said. "My coach and my teammates influencing all of us. Like if we got plays, make 'em. I was open. I shot it."
Inside the final minute, South Carolina once again trailed by one possession. Coming out of a timeout, Calipari designed a curl screen for Johnell Davis, who came rolling around Jonas Aidoo and finished a left-handed layup. That put Arkansas up 68-64 with 32 seconds on the clock, and Davis made four more free throws to clinch the win.
The second-half struggles diminished a dominant performance before halftime. Aidoo scored all 14 of his points in the first half as Arkansas shot 54.8% from the field and took a 47-30 lead into the locker room.
"Had to dominate them as soon as we saw them," Aidoo said.
The big advantage, along with a team-high 16 points from Trevon Brazile, proved to be just enough get the Hogs across the finish line.
For Calipari, the result was a summation of the entire season.
"Whether it's individuals who were in a dark place, whether it was our team, we start 0-5. Some of it was schedule, some of it was us. These kids stayed together," Calipari said.
"This team has withstood all of it. I'm telling them, the rest of their lives you're going to be able to look back knowing individually they were in a dark place. You walk through it."
Next, Arkansas will attempt to walk through Ole Miss in the second round Thursday.
Jackson Fuller covers Arkansas football, basketball and baseball for the Southwest Times Record, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at jfuller@gannett.com or follow him@jacksonfuller16 on X, formerly known as Twitter.