Just as it did in the first meeting of the season between the two schools, No. 16 Kentucky went on a late run in the second half to take an exciting 111-102 win over Arkansas at Rupp Arena on Saturday.
The lead changed 17 times during the game. The Razorbacks held their largest lead of the game, 86-77, with 8:42 remaining and an upset seemed possible. Arkansas held a narrow 92-91 lead with 4:59 remaining in the game, but at that point the Wildcats took control of the game to get the win. Eric Musselman praised his team's effort in the loss.
"I thought our team played extremely hard," Musselman said. "We had a couple of costly turnovers that I thought changed the complexion of the game, because they were live-ball turnovers. So I would say the two crucial turnovers.
"The effort was phenomenal today by us, and by Kentucky. Kentucky played as hard as I’ve seen a team play. And I thought our team our team played as hard as we could play as well."
The points were the most scored by Arkansas this season. They had success doing what many felt was impossible and that is run with the Wildcats. The Hogs had 48 points in the paint compared to 38 for Kentucky. Arkansas shot 41% (7-17) from behind the 3-point line while Kentucky shot 45% (9-20). Many expected Arkansas to play a slower pace against the talented and deep Kentucky squad.
"We made the decision that we were going to run today," Musselman said. "The couple turnovers, baseball out of bounds defense, those are the two areas that I thought changed the complexion of the game. And then the 42 free throws attempted, really hard to overcome.
"Not sure I’ve been around a team that plays this hard. Went 27 of 28 from the foul line. Had 10 steals, 13 assists and came away with the loss. But you’re talking about a Kentucky team that can win a national championship. And then playing in their building … you know."
While Arkansas only missed one free throw as Musselman noted, but Kentucky shot 42 making 34. Arkansas had two players foul out, Chandler Lawson and Trevon Brazile, and three more finish the game with four. Musselman was asked how troublesome the fouls were?
"Problematic," Musselman said. "I mean, both our bigs foul out. Not easy, but I thought guys stepped up. I thought (Jeremiah) Davenport had his best rebounding game of the year. We needed him to rebound the ball today because, out of necessity with the fouls, with Chandler and Makhi (Mitchell). We were going to need somebody to rebound the ball, and JD did that for us."
Davenport finished the game with 14 points and five rebounds. Khalif Battle became the second Razorback to score at least 30 points in three consecutive games. Mason Jones did it in 2020. Battle had 34 points and a team-leading eight rebounds on Saturday. That followed up games of 42 against Missouri and 36 in Vanderbilt contest. Battle did it Saturday while making only one 3-pointer in four attempts, but was 17 of 18 from the free throw line. An oddity is he missed his first attempt and then was perfect remainder of game.
