Arkansas yielded more first half points to the Georgia Bulldogs Wednesday night in Athens, Ga. than the Razorbacks did their entire 87-43 rout over Missouri Jan. 12 at Walton Arena.
It didn’t matter. Coach Eric Musselman’s Razorbacks still led Wednesday night’s intermission 53-47 then turned up the second half defensive heat posting a 99-73 SEC success at UGA’s Stegeman Coliseum.
Off its now 7-game winning streak, Arkansas advances to 17-5 overall, 6-3 in the SEC going into Saturday night’s 7:30 SEC Network televised SEC game against Mississippi State at Walton Arena.
Coach Tom Crean’s Georgia Bulldogs fall to 6-16 overall, 1-8 in the SEC and host nationally No. 1/SEC leading Auburn Saturday afternoon in Athens.
Via University of South Dakota graduate transfer Stanley Umude, with a career high 31 points and 6 of 8 treys including a halftime buzzer beater for the 53-47 halftime edge, plus four rebounds and two shot-blocks, senior guard JD Notae, 23 points, nine rebounds, six assists and three steals, sophomore center Jaylin Williams, 14 points, eight rebounds, two blocked shots and per usual taking UGA momentum killing charges, and via University of Miami graduate transfer guard Chris Lykes, seven assists and nine points and four steals, led Arkansas’ all game offensive/second half defensive onslaught.
Georgia, led for the game by Kario Oquendo’s 17 points, sizzled 7 of 11 first-half 3-points among its 14 for 24 field goal tries before intermission but in the second half hit but 10 of 29 total and just 1 of 6 treys.
Umude’s halftime buzzer beater perhaps got Georgia’s dauber down but didn’t spare the Razorbacks a scathing Musselman message about their first half.
“We didn’t feel that good,” 6-6 forward Umude said on postgame radio. “Coach got on us at half-time because we really weren’t defending at the rate we had been during the winning streak. We just can’t have a half like that in the first half. They came out ready to play and were hot from three. A couple of guys we really weren’t too worried about making threes they hit a couple of shots and it gave them confidence. We just have to lock in better at the defensive end for the whole game.”
Musselman said the Hogs played second half “awesome” both sides of the ball.
“We had a good heart to heart at halftime,” Musselman said on postgame radio. “Because I was probably more disappointed in our first half than I had been all year though we did make a run and went up six. But that , first 12 and a half minutes of the first half we did not play with the identity of who we are. At halftime I think they understood the passion of expectations coming into tonight and we played phenomenal in the second half.”
A former NBA head coach and NBA assistant, Musselman said he felt first half back in that league and not in a good way.
“What happened in the first half it was like an NBA game where you are just changing baskets,” Musselman said. “You can’t do that. They shot like 60 percent or whatever in the first half. It felt like 90 percent. They were playing H-O-R-S-E getting open shots from three but we were just totally locked down in that second half.”
Musselman joked that in the second half that in the second half instead of correcting the team he got corrected by Umude.
“I was yelling to hold up on one of his transition three-balls,” Musselman said. “He made it, and he gave one of those stare-downs that maybe (the late Los Angeles Lakers great) Kobe Bryant gave (retired Lakers and Chicago Bulls coach) Phil Jackson. He tried to put me in my place. I just went and sat down in my little spot next to the scorer’s table and hid. And then he came right back and hit another one right after that.The second one he didn’t look at me, though. Stanley was absolutely phenomenal.”
So were Notae, the Covington, Ga. native with a big homecoming to his native state, Lykes and Williams even with Williams limited to just six first-half minutes because of foul trouble.
SEC scoring leader Notae’s mere presence helped Umude immensely, Umude asserted.
“With JD being one of the best players in the conference they were really shrinking the floor on him,” Umude said. “I realized that in the first half and kept my hands ready to knock them down when they came to me. Chris and JD did a good job of finding me.”
Lykes assisted on Umude’s halftime buzzer beater.
“I thought that was by far Chris Lykes’ best game overall,” Musselman said in his postgame Zoom press conference. “Both sides of the ball. Seven assists and I thought he was really good defensively getting a couple of steals off inbounds passes. Playing hide-and-seek with the inbound man. So I thought he was awesome. I thought JD was great. And J-Will did a great job.”
Crean said his Bulldogs seemed in trouble in trouble even while holding their own in the first 20 minutes.
The game was going a little too fast for us in the first half,” Crean said. “We were giving up too many baskets, but at least we were coming down and scoring. We had some bad offensive possessions at the start of the second half, which got their break going, which got Umude hot.”