TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Arkansas is still the only visiting team to win this season at Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gym, where the Commodores are 14-1
Three weeks after the Razorbacks knocked off Vanderbilt 89-78, it looked like they might pull another surprise on Saturday night and become the first visiting team to beat Alabama at Coleman Coliseum.
But the Crimson Tide rallied from a five-point deficit in the final 12 minutes to beat Arkansas 69-56 and improve to 14-0 at home.
“Obviously, coming in here we knew we had to play 40 minutes of basketball,” Razorbacks Coach John Pelphrey said. “I thought our guys competed and played hard, put themselves in a situation to win in a very difficult environment. Alabama was just better than us down the stretch.”
The Tide outscored the Razorbacks 25-7 in the final 11:58 to avenge a 70-65 loss at Arkansas on Jan. 15.
“Give Arkansas credit, they played extremely well,” said Tide Coach Anthony Grant, who coached with Pelphrey when both were assistants at Marshall and Florida. “But our guys weren’t going to be denied.”
Alabama (18-8, 10 -2 ) clinched a share of its first SEC West title since 2005 and the division’s top seed and a first-round bye in the conference tournament. Arkansas (16-10, 5-7) is a game behind Mississippi State (6-6) in the race for the West’s No. 2 seed and a first round bye and tied for third with Ole Miss (5-7).
The Razorbacks play Mississippi State at Walton Arena and at Ole Miss in the final week of the regular season, but first play Kentucky at Walton Arena on Wednesday night and at Auburn this Saturday.
Alabama was coming off a 67-56 victory at LSU on Thursday night while no Arkansas starter played more than 21 minutes in the Razorbacks’ 94-55 victory over Florida A&M on Wednesday night.
The Tide also had a Thursday night-Saturday schedule last week, when they lost at Vanderbilt and came home to beat Ole Miss.
“There were some spots in the second half where I was a little concerned, when you go Thursday-Saturday for the second week in a row and Arkansas pretty much having the week to prepare for us,” Grant said. “I was really proud of our guys. We dug down deep.”
Alabama got big games from Tony Mitchell (career high 27 points), Trevor Releford (17 points) and JaMychal Green (16 points), but the only Razorback with more than eight points was Rotnei Clarke, who scored 21.
“I thought that Rot played well. He made some very difficult shots,” Pelphrey said. “Alabama’s a very good defensive basketball team and they made it difficult for him all night to get that many points.
“I thought his teammates did a good job screening for him a little bit, getting some curls and delivering some balls on time.”
Arkansas senior center Delvon Johnson was limited to 3 points, 2 rebounds and 1 blocked shot in 20 minutes after suffering what Pelphrey called a hip pointer in the f irst half. He played 14 minutes in the second half.
“He got hit pretty good,” Pelphrey said of Johnson’s injury. “Pretty courageous for him to play in the second half. We’ll wait to see how he is.”
Pelphrey was asked how Johnson’s injury impacted the Razorbacks.
“We have no excuses,” he said. “Alabama just outplayed us.”
Sports, Pages 18 on 02/21/2011