No. 10-seed Arkansas defeated No. 2 St. John's 75-66 on Saturday in Providence, R.I. to advance to the Sweet 16 against either Texas Tech or Drake.
Arkansas held the lead for most of the game and saw Billy Richmond come off the bench to score 16 points and pull down nine rebounds. It was a day when neither team shot particularly well and both were in foul trouble during the game. The Razorbacks shot 42.9% from the field and only 10.5% (2-19) from beyond the arc. The Hogs did knock down 19 of 27 free throws (70.4%). Assistant head coach Kenny Payne praised the team afterward.
"I’m so proud of Karter Knox for coming in and just fighting and attacking," Payne said. "I told him before the game these type of games are for tough players. And he and Billy Richmond are the toughest on the team. And for Boogie being out all that time injured and then coming back and help us. And D.J. keeping us steady. All of them. Everybody who stepped on the floor helped us. They have a full court resume of not just playing college basketball but winning college basketball."
Wagner praised Richmond after the game as well.
"Oh man, he rebounded, he scored, he helped us a lot," Wagner said.
Knox did have one of his better games. He scored 15 points, pulled down six rebounds and blocked four shots. Wagner chipped in eight points, four assists and two steals.
"It was a dogfight," Payne said. "For the last couple days we’ve talked about two dogs and one bone, which means somebody ain’t going to eat. They are a great team and an attacking team. And we talked about them rebounding the ball and how hard they play which they do. But I’ll say this again, we don’t have the same players that walked in the door. They have grown that much.
"I think sometimes when you see us on film and then in person whether you are an opposing coach or opposing player you don’t realize how fast we are. How athletic we are. We have guys big, fast and athletic and we contest shots."
Contest shots is what they did on Saturday. St. John's leading scorer RJ Luis Jr. was limited to just nine points on 3 of 17 from the field and 0 of 3 from behind the 3-point line. He played so poorly Rick Pitino closed the final several minutes with Luis on the bench watching.
Arkansas jumped out to a 14-6 lead early in the game. From that point the Hogs held the lead until Deivon Smith hit a shot with 4:25 remaining in the first half to give his team a 28-27 lead. St. John's held a 32-28 lead on two Zuby Ejiofor free throws with 2:38 remaining in the first half.
However, at that point the Razorbacks went on a 7-0 run to end the half putting the Razorbacks up 35-32 at intermission. To add to that, Arkansas came out hot in the second half going on a 11-4 run to push the lead to 46-36 with 15:29 remaining in the game.
After Ruben Prey hit a shot to pull St. John's to within 66-64 with 4:11 remaining Wagner and Richmond hit back to back field goals to push the lead out to 70-64 with just 2:14 remaining in the game. Ejiofor made a field goal with 20 seconds left in the game to pull within 70-66, but then Knox, Johnell "Nelly" Davis and Richmond iced it by making five free throws in the final 20 seconds to set the margin of victory.
"We came a long way," Wagner said. "We want to celebrate this one. But we’ve got to prepare for the next one."
Davis finished with 13 points and four rebounds. Trevon Brazile added eight points and eight rebounds. Jonas Aidoo, who was in foul trouble the entire game, had seven points, seven rebounds, two assists, a steal and one block. Boogie Fland added six points, four rebounds and two assists. Zvonimir Ivisic played 10 minutes before fouling out. He did finish with two points and a pair of boards. He did buy John Calipari and the Hogs some minutes with Aidoo out with foul trouble.
Ejifor topped St. John's with 23 points and 12 rebounds. Smith had 13 points, four rebounds and six assists. St. John's was horrible from the field. They shot 29.0% (21-75) from the field and 9.1% (2-22) from beyond the arc. They did outrebound Arkansas 51-45, but missed several layups on put backs at the rim.
Arkansas (22-13) advances to the Sweet 16 in Calipari's first season while St. John's (31-5) saw Rick Pitino's season end just as Bill Self did on Thursday night. Payne is excited to see this team get this far in NCAA Tournament
"Really gratifying because we are trying to establish a culture here," Payne said. "A culture of winning. It’s a great start and I don’t feel we’re done yet. Let’s go chase it. Seeing those kids in the locker room it just about brings you to tears with their emotions passion about winning and having team success when nobody really thought you could."
Photos Craven Whitlow
