FAYETTEVILLE — Tramon Mark hit the game-winning basket with 1.1 seconds remaining on Tuesday night to give Arkansas a 78-77 win over Texas A&M in Bud Walton Arena.
Mark's clutch shot was needed after Wade Taylor IV hit a contested 3-point shot with 7.6 seconds remaining to give the Aggies their first lead of the game at 77-76. It appeared Arkansas had blown a 20-point lead to lose yet again, but Mark was unstoppable. He finished the game with 35 points while Taylor had 41. Mark talked about the shot that gave Arkansas its first SEC win this season.
“Coach drew it up and I just went out there and executed it," Mark said crediting Eric Musselman.
Mark, who transferred to Arkansas from Houston prior to the season, was 17-of-22 from the free throw line. He's hoping this win can provide the Hogs some momentum.
“I feel like it’s the start of something good for us, we just got to keep getting better," Mark said.
Musselman obviously was pleased that Mark was able to be the Razorback taking the final shot.
“We got the ball in the hands of who we needed to tonight because of how T-Mark was playing tonight," Musselman said.
Musselman had seen his team lose to Auburn by 32 points (83-51), Georgia 10 (76-66) and then 22 (90-68) at Florida.
“We lead for 38 minutes that’s a drastic improvement from where we were in our first three [SEC] games," Musselman said.
The Razorbacks jumped out to a 17-3 lead with 12:14 remaining in the first half. The Aggies were extremely cold in the first half shooting 7%, 1-of-15 from behind the 3-point line. Arkansas held a 46-32 lead at intermission. The largest lead of the game was 20 points, 34-14, with 6:07 remaining in the first half.
Louisville transfer El Ellis played 2:54 against Florida this past Saturday. He got the surprise start on Tuesday night and responded with 15 points, six rebounds and two assists in 31 minutes.
“It felt really good to be out there," Ellis said. "You always gotta be ready for your number to be called and tonight mine was.”
Jeremiah Davenport and Trevon Brazile each contributed eight points. Brazile also pulled down five boards. Davonte "Devo" Davis finished with seven points, six rebounds and an assist before being ejected from the game for a Flagrant 2 call with 4:41 remaining on the clock.
The Aggies played without senior forward Henry Coleman III who is third on the team in scoring (11.9) and second rebounding (8.0). Andersson Garcia had 10 points and a game-high 12 rebounds in addition to Taylor's outstanding performance.
“Where has this been?," Musselman said. "We led for the whole game. We needed to lead from start to finish in a game… we had swagger when we played Duke, we had swagger when we played Purdue and we needed it back.
“Confidence wise, we needed it for sure. It’s one game, now it’s over… I can’t wait to get home and dig in to South Carolina.”
Arkansas (10-7, 1-3) shot 39% from the field compared to 32 for the Aggies. The two teams combined to shoot 73 free throws and there was eight reviews by the referees during the game. Arkansas had eight turnovers to only two for A&M. texas A&M (10-7, 1-3) won the battle of the boards 47-35 and had 25 second-chance points compared to only nine for the Razorbacks.
The Razorbacks will host South Carolina (14-3, 2-2) on Saturday with the tip at noon on the SEC Network. The Gamecocks fell to Georgia 74-69 in Columbia on Tuesday night.
