Sunk by the Commodores: Hogs 0-2 in SEC after loss

Arkansas guard Chris Lykes, left, defends as Vanderbilt guard Scotty Pippen Jr. drives with the ball during the first half of Tuesday's game in Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville. The Commodores held on to down the Razorbacks 75-74 after JD Notae missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer. - Photo by Andy Shupe of NWA Democrat-Gazette
Arkansas guard Chris Lykes, left, defends as Vanderbilt guard Scotty Pippen Jr. drives with the ball during the first half of Tuesday's game in Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville. The Commodores held on to down the Razorbacks 75-74 after JD Notae missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer. - Photo by Andy Shupe of NWA Democrat-Gazette


FAYETTEVILLE -- Vanderbilt continued the misery for the University of Arkansas basketball team.

The Commodores held on to beat the Razorbacks 75-74 on Tuesday night in Walton Arena when Arkansas senior guard JD Notae's three-point attempt bounced off the rim as time expired.

"I thought we got a great look," Razorbacks Coach Eric Musselman said.

Arkansas (10-4, 0-2 SEC) had the last shot to win after Vanderbilt guard Tyrin Lawrence missed two free throws with 9.2 seconds left.

Jaylin Williams rebounded the second missed free throw for Arkansas and the Razorbacks rushed the ball up the court, but Stanley Umude's driving attempt was blocked by Myles Stute.

The ball went out of bounds with 1.2 seconds left with Arkansas keeping possession.

Williams then inbounded to Notae, who couldn't hit the game-winner.

Vanderbilt (9-4, 1-0 SEC) ended a seven-game losing streak against the Razorbacks and beat Arkansas for the first time since a 71-59 victory at Walton Arena on Feb. 7, 2017.

Arkansas had its Walton Arena winning streak end at 16 games, including an 8-0 start this season.

Missouri had been the last time to beat the Razorbacks at home, 81-68 last season.

The Commodores, a combined 6-28 in SEC games the previous two seasons, won their conference opener for the first time since 2016.

"I thought it was a tough win, a great win for our program and a great win for our guys," Vanderbilt Coach Jerry Stackhouse said. "They worked extremely hard throughout this game. We were down some bodies.

"The rest of our guys gutted it out, played a lot of heavy minutes. It wasn't as pretty as we'd have liked it to be down the stretch, but at the end of the day we made tough, hard plays at the end and were able to secure the win. I'm really proud of our group."

Arkansas lost for the fourth time in its last five games.

The Razorbacks have lost their first two SEC games for the first time since the 2013-14 season when they were beaten at Texas A&M 69-53 and at home by Florida 84-82 in overtime.

Junior guard Scotty Pippen Jr. led the Commodores with 22 points as his father -- former University of Central Arkansas and NBA star Scottie Pippen -- watched from a front row seat at mid-court.

Pippen also had seven turnovers and missed a dunk with 3:08 left that would have given Vanderbilt a six-point lead.

The Commodores had other miscues to help the Razorbacks stay in the game in the final minutes, but Arkansas couldn't make the play to take the lead.

Pippen fouled out with 41.5 seconds left when he was defending Notae, who hit two free throws to pull Arkansas within 74-70.After Rodney Chatman hit 1 of 2 free throws for a 75-70 Vanderbilt lead, Notae's three-pointer made it 75-73 with 20.6 seconds left.

Arkansas guard Chris Lykes then stole the inbound pass. He missed a wild shot attempt in the lane, but was fouled with 15.5 seconds left.

Lykes, who had hit 31 of 31 free throws on the season in the final three minutes, hit his first attempt, but missed the second.

But the 5-7 Lykes rebounded his miss and passed to Jaxson Robinson -- Arkansas' best perimeter shooter -- for an open three-pointer.

Robinson missed, but after Lawrence couldn't hit his free throws, the Razorbacks had two shots to win the game.

"We don't want to be in that position, obviously," Umude said. "But I think Jaxson got a good look. I had a layup that I should have finished, and then JD got a good look, too.

"So we'll live with that and we've just got to keep working to get better."

Umude, a senior transfer from South Dakota, made his third start of the season and led the Razorbacks with a season-high 28 points. Au'Diese Toney, an Arkansas senior forward who transferred from Pittsburgh, also had a season-high 20 points.

"I thought we had a lot of clean looks," Musselman said. "It's kind of been how it's rolled with us for the last four or five games."

Notae, who missed the Mississippi State game because of an illness, returned to the starting lineup and had 16 points.

Razorbacks' junior forward Kamani Johnson returned from a one-game suspension and played eight minutes off the bench.

"Down the stretch we had a little fortune," Stackhouse said. "They missed a free throw. They had an opportunity at the end to make a shot.

"But I thought Myles, his hustle, his energy to get that block [on Umude] was huge for us to get our defense set."

Trey Thomas scored 15 points for Vanderbilt, hitting 5 of 7 three-pointers.

"I thought Trey Thomas really killed us," Musselman said. "Him going 5 of 7, you can't have that."

Pippen hit 6 of 11 shots and 9 of 12 free throws.

"Thought it was pretty good," Musselman said of how the Razorbacks defended Pippen, the SEC's leading scorer coming into the game averaging 18.1 points. "I mean, he only got 11 attempts up. He always draws fouls.

"We caused seven turnovers. That's a heck of a lot of turnovers for one player."

Notae, who returned to practice Saturday on a limited basis, shot 6 of 17, including 1 of 7 on three-pointers.

"I thought he played good," Musselman said. "He didn't turn the ball over. He did have five assists. One of seven from three, we'd like one or two more to fall down.

"But I thought he played with good effort and tried to get his teammates involved as well."

Arkansas starting sophomore guard Davonte Davis struggled with his ball-handling and played nine minutes. He had three turnovers and didn't attempt a shot or free throw.

"Didn't play very well," Musselman said.

Vanderbilt hit 19 of 26 free throws compared to 18 of 28 for the Razorbacks.

The Commodores overcame 17 turnovers by hitting 10 of 25 three-pointers. Arkansas shot 46.9% (26 of 53) from the field, but had as many turnovers as assists with 14 of each.

"I looked at the stat sheet during the game and we were 7 of 10 from the field and had five turnovers," Musselman said. "I don't know how that's possible when you're shooting at a 70% clip and you turn the ball over that much."


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