Arkansas appeared to be coasting to win over Texas Tech Thursday night at the Chase Center in San Francisco, but the Red Raiders put together an unreal rally to eliminate the Razorbacks 85-83 in overtime.
Arkansas Coach John Calipari was obviously disappointed in the outcome, but credited Texas Tech for doing what it needed to do to win. He praised his own team for overcoming an 0-5 start in the SEC to make it to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament.
"Hard game," Calipari said. "Two teams went at it. Slugfest. We're all disappointed here. But I told them, there's nothing them individually or my team could do to disappoint me because of what they've done this year. I'm so proud of them and proud of these two. But I'm proud of all the guys.
"Adou (Thiero) tried to play today. Boogie (Fland) was still not there. But they all wanted to play to try to help their team. But give Texas Tech credit. They made plays down the stretch that gave them a chance and they won the game."
Texas Tech got a basket by Darrion Williams with seven seconds remaining and then held on as D.J. Wagner missed a shot at the buzzer to end Arkansas' season. It was a bad ending to a game that Arkansas appeared to be in control 69-56 with 4:43 remaining. The Red Raiders then went on a 16-3 run to end regulation tied at 72.
"We missed a shot and kicked it out," Calipari said. "It was a new shot clock and we shot a 3, which, again, we had open shots, tried to drive and took tough shots. We had a couple of those. But to be honest with you, you know, I'll have to think back, but we were trying to run things to maybe drive the ball more. That's what we were doing.
}When we did drive it, we looked pretty good. But you're right, we missed some shots. We missed some free throws or one one-on-one. Like I said, I'm not in the frame of mind to go back play-by-play."
The game saw the Razorbacks waste an outstanding effort from Johnell "Nelly" Davis. Davis finished with 30 points, six rebounds and an assist. Karter Knox was also outstanding finishing with 20 points and six rebounds. Davis was disappointed in the outcome of the game despite what he accomplished.
"I think we both played hard and they just came out with the win today," Davis said.
The Razorbacks held a 38-31 lead at intermission. Davis gave Arkansas a 59-43 lead with 11:40 remaining in the game. Christian Anderson made a field goal and then Billy Richmond answered to put the Hogs back up by 16, 61-45, with 10:23 left in regulation. That field goal by Richmond was the only one made by a reserve. Adou Thiero had one free throw. The Red Raiders bench outscored Arkansas 19-3 on the night. Kevin Overton was outstanding off the Tech bench scoring 12 points, pulling down seven boards and adding a steal.
It was Williams who forced the overtime. He knocked down a trey with 9.7 seconds remaining in regulation to tie the game. Williams finished the game with 20 points, nine rebounds, three assists, three steals and one block.
It was Williams and Christian Anderson who brought the Red Raiders back in the final 4:43 of regulation. In the 16-3 run, Anderson hit three shots from beyond the arc and Williams added seven points including the shot that sent it to overtime. Anderson had 22 points, four rebounds and three assists to lead the Red Raiders.
In the overtime, JT Toppin got the Red Raiders on the scoreboard first with a shot that was ruled goal tending by Trevon Brazile. But Brazile came right back to hit a field goal that tied the game at 74. Knox put the Hogs up 76-74 on a field goal, but missed the free throw. Elijah Hawkins then hit his only field goal on the night to put Tech up 77-76. Hawkins was 1 of 10 from the field and that was his only make beyond the arc on seven tries.
Knox then hit two free throws to put Arkansas back up 78-77 with 2:37 left in overtime. That was the last time the Razorbacks would hold the lead. Two made free throws by Williams and a field goal by Toppin put Tech up 81-78 with 1:41 left on the clock. But Brazile knocked down a trey to tie it at 81 with 1:24 left in overtime. Toppin put the Red Raiders up 83-81, but then Wagner tied it at 83 with 34 seconds left. That set up Williams' heroics to send the Red Raiders to the Elite Eight to take on Florida. The Gators eliminated Maryland 87-71 in the first game at the Chase Center. Calipari was asked if he considered calling a timeout on the last possession?
"Yeah, but in my career, I let that go, let the guy get to the rim," Calipari said. "They're not going to foul you. With that kind of time, just me, you call a timeout, now you've got to worry about what he's doing, how he's playing, the inbound, what are you doing.
"So I usually let that go. Now, because it ended the way it did, yeah, I wish I would have called a timeout. But 99 percent of the time, I let that go because now I know what they're doing, they know what we're doing. That's why we did it. The end of the half we wanted to go at one guy, and we did. He made a hard bump on D.J. that got him kind of off balance on the shot. But it was what we wanted."
Wagner finished with 13 points, three rebounds and four assists. Brazile had 11 points, five rebounds, one assist and a block. Jonas Aidoo added six points and nine rebounds. Arkansas (22-14) had defeated Kansas and St. John's to reach the Sweet 16.
Texas Tech (28-8) got 20 points, nine rebounds and five blocks from Toppin. Kevin Overton had 12 points and seven rebounds.
The Razorbacks shot 41.5% (27-65) from the field, 40% (10-25) from 3-point land and 86.4% (19-22) at the free throw line. Tech outrebounded the Razorbacks 51-39 including 22 offensive boards. Knox was disappointed in allowing so many offensive rebounds.
"We should have boxed out," Knox said. "That's how you have offensive rebounds. We just didn't get no rebounds, we didn't have nobody."
Photos Craven Whitlow
