Hogs lose opener for 5th consecutive year

Arkansas guard BJ Young (11) works against Vanderbilt' Shelby Moats (34) and Kedren Johnson (2) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game at the Southeastern Conference tournament, Thursday, March 14, 2013, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Arkansas guard BJ Young (11) works against Vanderbilt' Shelby Moats (34) and Kedren Johnson (2) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game at the Southeastern Conference tournament, Thursday, March 14, 2013, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Friday, March 15, 2013

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - It was another short and frustrating trip to the SEC Tournament for Arkansas.

Vanderbilt beat the Razorbacks 75-72 on Thursday night at Bridgestone Arena as Arkansas lost its opening game in the SEC Tournament for the fifth consecutive year.

“We’re in a rough patch, to be honest,” Razorbacks red shirt junior forward Marshawn Powell said. “It’s difficult to go through that, but we’re not going to give up. We’ll get there.”

The five-year winless streak is the longest for Arkansas in the SEC Tournament since joining the conference for the 1991-1992 season. The previous longest winless streak was four years, when Arkansas suffered firstround losses from 2002-2005.

Arkansas (19-13) needed to win the SEC Tournament to earn an automatic bid to play in the NCAA Tournament. Now the Razorbacks have to wait to see if they get an NIT bid.

“Every game is a tough loss, but this one especially,” Arkansas sophomore guard Ky Madden said. “We should have come out harder from the jump. If we had played at the beginning of the game like we did at the end of the game, it probably would be a different circumstance.”

Vanderbilt (15-16), which advanced to play Kentucky in tonight’s quarterfinal round, led by as many as 14 points in the first half and went ahead 59-43 on a three-point basket by junior forward Rod Odom with 10:40 left.

It appeared the Commodores were ready to cruise to the victory, but the Razorbacks pulled within 70-68 on two free throws by sophomore guard BJ Young with 50.9 seconds left. Arkansas then had a chance to tie the score after freshman forward Michael Qualls forced a turnover with 35 seconds left, but he rushed a pass ahead to Powell, who shot as he was trying to avoid falling out of bounds and his attempt hit the bottom of the backboard.

“We ended up forcing something that probably wasn’t there,” Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson said. “You get that basket there or get to the free-throw line and it’s a different game. But our guys gave everything they had.”

Powell said he looked at Qualls, glanced away for a split second as he ran toward the goal, then looked back and saw the ball coming at him and had to adjust to catch it.

“I felt like I was already out of bounds,” Powell said. “I tried to throw it [into the basket] and it just didn’t go the way I had planned.

“It was a tough possession during the game. It was a real, real important possession for us.”

After Powell’s miss, Vanderbilt sophomore guard Kedren Johnson hit two free throws with 19. 8 seconds left to give Vanderbilt a 72-68 lead. Young then was fouled on a driving attempt with 13.1 seconds left but missed both free throws.

Vanderbilt sophomore guard Dai-Jon Parker made 1 of 2 free throws with 11.3 seconds left to put the Commodores ahead 73-68. Young’s layup made it 73-70 with 6.6 seconds left, but Johnson clinched the game for Vanderbilt by hitting two free throws with 5.5 seconds left to make it 75-70.

Young scored a basket with a second left for the final 75-72.

“We made things a little bit harder on ourselves at the end than we needed to,” Vanderbilt Coach Kevin Stallings said. “We missed some foul shots, had some turnovers, but earlier in the season we would have lost this game. The missed shots and turnovers would have freaked us out, but we maintained our composure and kept getting stops and we made enough free throws and made enough plays to win the game.”

Vanderbilt junior forward Rod Odom matched his career high with 20 points and sophomore guard Kyle Fuller scored 19 points, his most against an SEC opponent this season.

The Commodores finished 12 of 28 on three-point attempts. Odom was 5 of 9 and Fuller was 3 of 6.

“It’s hard to defend a team when the shooters are making and guys are getting to the paint, creating drives and kicks and mismatches,” said Young, who led Arkansas with 16 points. “It was hard to combat that. We still tried to apply our defensive pressure full court … We got some steals, sometimes they broke it.

“They knocked down shots and they deserved to win.”

The Razorbacks haven’t won in the SEC Tournament since 2008, when they beat Vanderbilt and Tennessee before losing to Georgia in the championship game. Since then Arkansas has lost openers to Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and LSU in addition to Vanderbilt.

“I thought our guys had the right mind-set coming into tournament play,” said Anderson, who is 0-2 in the SEC Tournament with the Razorbacks. “This is the time of year we [expect] to play some of our better basketball, so it’s disappointing to me from thatstandpoint”

Several Razorbacks said after the game they hope to get an NIT bid.

“We’d love to keep playing,” Young said. “We want to play as many games as wecan.”

The Razorbacks made just 20 of 34 free throws, including Powell going 7 of 15 and Young 4 of 8.

“I think that’s the killer, “Anderson said of missing 14 free throws. “We had a lot of empty possessions.”

Powell had 13 points and nine rebounds. Qualls had 10 points, junior forward Coty Clarke had 9 points, 6 rebounds and 3 steals and Madden had 7 points, 7 rebounds 2 blocked shots and 2 steals.

While Anderson praised the Razorbacks for fighting their way back into the game, he noted their sluggishness on defense that allowed Vanderbilt to take a lead and hold it for the final 27 minutes.

“The energy wasn’t there, the effort wasn’t there, we weren’t in sync with one another,” Anderson said. “Of course, that’s my fault. I thought I had those guys prepared.”

Sports, Pages 17 on 03/15/2013