Arkansas Razorbacks 71, Vanderbilt Commodores 70: Straight Thievery

Arkansas spotted Vanderbilt nearly seven and a half free minutes in the second half. And won.

Arkansas was down by 15 points with 6:02 to play. And won.

Dusty Hannahs showed up late to the game. He only played for the last five minutes but that’s all Arkansas needed. Hannahs scored 14 points in the last five minutes and needed each one of them.

I’m just going to post this screenshot of the scoring of the last 6 minutes from the official stats site:

It all came together on a frantic final play. Arkansas’ press finally produced a steal by Jaylen Barford, which led to Hannahs missing a three from the corner (about the same spot Michael Qualls hit the game-winning three the last time Arkansas played at Vandy), but the Hogs tipped the rebound back to the top of the key. Daryl Macon launched a three but was cut underneath by a Commodore, giving Macon three free throws.

Macon has been an elite iceman for the Hogs this season. He’s handled clutch free throws almost perfectly, and he calmly drained all three shots even after the officials spent way too long reviewing the play. Hogs win.

The only reason Arkansas was in the game in the first half was because Barford was a monster in the first 20 minutes. He scored 13 of Arkansas’ 30 first half points.

Moses Kingsley had a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds and Anton Beard scored 11.

Arkansas has now won three of the four SEC road games they’ve played, and they trailed in each of them. In the last two, they trailed significantly in the final ten minutes. It’s remarkable. You have to think Arkansas’ habit of digging a hole for themselves will cost them at some point, but so far so good.

Despite Vanderbilt’s losing record, their RPI was in the 50s coming into the game because they’ve played a really tough schedule and beat Florida in Gainesville last week. So this is Arkansas’ strongest resume win of the season so far, most likely (it might be Tennessee if the Vols hold on against Kentucky tonight UPDATE THEY DID WOOO).

The Razorbacks now travel to Stillwater for their part in the Big 12 Challenge against Oklahoma State. Can they keep the road game magic going?