Hogs carry out three-point plan

BOB HOLT
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- It took 10 games, but Arkansas finally has an SEC winning streak.
The Razorbacks beat Mississippi State 87-81 Saturday at Humphrey Coliseum to give themselves back-to-back SEC victories for the first time this season. They also beat Alabama 81-66 Wednesday night at Walton Arena.
"We're a little bit back in the picture now," Arkansas senior guard Chris Walker said. "If we can keep winning, keep this streak going and keep bringing our A game, we'll be all right."
The Razorbacks (13-10, 5-5) shot a season-high 58.8 percent from three-point range (10 of 17) and shot 51.7 percent overall from the field, their best in an SEC game.
"We haven't shot three-pointers like that in a long, long, long, long, long time," Arkansas Coach Nolan Richardson said. "But they were there."
The three-pointers were there because the Bulldogs (12-11, 3-7) always seemed a step or two slow on defense and left the Razorbacks open on the perimeter.
Arkansas hadn't shot so well from three-point range in 50 games, since hitting 14 of 21 (66 percent) against Western Carolina last season.
Walker hit 4 of 4 three-pointers Saturday, sophomore guard Teddy Gipson 3 of 4, sophomore guard Brandon Dean 2 of 4 and freshman guard Joe Johnson 1 of 3. Even their misses usually were open looks.
"For the first time this season, I wasn't pleased with our team's effort defensively," Mississippi State Coach Rick Stansbury said. "I think that is very apparent by the score and the shooting percentage.
"We scored enough points to win the game, but when you're not sharp defensively, you're not sharp mentally."
Johnson led Arkansas with 22 points, Gipson matched his career-high with 19, Walker had 18 off the bench, freshman forward Alonzo Lane had 13 points and 7 rebounds, and Dean had 10 points.
"When you have that many players scoring that many points, you're usually going to win," Gipson said. "It takes the pressure off just one player having to score all the points."
The Razorbacks beat the Bulldogs for the seventh consecutive time.
"They just killed us, everybody got outworked one through five," Mississippi State senior guard Todd Myles said. "Arkansas had premium gas in their tanks and we had regular, and you can see why people pay more for premium.
"We got our butts kicked, plain and simple. We were trying to come back, but you can't try at this level. You've got to do it."
The Bulldogs came close to doing it after the Razorbacks built a 77-52 lead with 3:57 left.
Arkansas suffered three consecutive turnovers, took some ill-advised shots, then missed four consecutive free throws -- one each by Johnson and Gipson and two by junior guard Brandon Davis.
With Mississippi State sophomore forward Robert Jackson, who had a game-high 24 points, scoring from the line and inside and junior guard Antonio Jackson hitting back-to-back three-pointers, the Bulldogs pulled within 81-78 with 47.2 seconds left.
Johnson then hit 1 of 2 free throws for an 82-78 Arkansas lead with 43.5 seconds left.
The Bulldogs opted to go for a quick two-pointer as freshman guard Derrick Zimmerman drove to the basket, but Arkansas freshman forward Carl Baker blocked the shot with 35 seconds left.
"Coach always tells us don't give up an easy basket," Baker said. "That's all I was trying to do, not give up the easy basket.
"I didn't really see (Zimmerman). I was just going for the ball."
Arkansas held on by hitting 4 of 5 free throws in the final 43.6 seconds, including one that capped a three-point play by Johnson when he scored on a drive with 6.8 seconds left.
Richardson said it wasn't a good decision for Johnson to go for that shot at the stage of the game -- or when he missed a jumper a minute earlier on a fast break -- but that the Razorbacks haven't had much experience in trying to protect a big lead late.
"Our clock management wasn't very good," Richardson said. "But it's going to get better, because hopefully we'll have some more games where we have to manage the clock."
The Razorbacks weren't about to complain about the sloppy finish.
"No matter how we pulled the game out, I'm just satisfied with the victory today," Gipson said. "Whether it was by one point or by the buzzer, as long as we won, that's the bottom line."

This article was published on Sunday, February 13, 2000

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