Hogs Advance to Sweet 16 in Ugly Win Over New Mexico State
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — If the New Mexico State-Arkansas game was a teenage boy, not only would he not get a date to prom, he would be banned from even attending.
That's how ugly the game was.
As one fan pointed out, when Arkansas was at its best, the Razorbacks' mantra was, "We'll take an ugly win anytime over a pretty loss."
In this case, the Hogs' hideous 53-48 win over the Aggies was enough to move on to a Sweet 16 showdown with No. 1 seed Gonzaga in Eric Musselman's old stomping grounds of San Francisco where he coached the Golden State Warriors.
The Bulldogs again trailed for most of its game before pulling ahead late to hold off Memphis, 82-78. Meanwhile, Arkansas chose to put all of its energy into defense, almost failing to leave enough juice on the offensive end.
"We spent the last 48 hours focused on defense," Musselman said. "It was a defensive clinic, but might not have a job tomorrow because of our offense."
For much of the game, Arkansas looked exhausted. Musselman admitted as much during a timeout interview early in the first half.
Musselman tried to pin the Hogs' lethargic look on getting back to the team hotel at 1:30 a.m. after the Vermont game.
However, the announcers were quick to throw the head Hog under the proverbial "Muss Bus" by pointing out that he made the team sit through a one-hour film session after the late arrival.
Gregory Fisher / USA TODAY Sports
LYKES ON ICE
The game of guard Chris Lykes can be both great and greatly infuriating all in the same game. However, there is little doubt Lykes deserves his props for his work on Saturday night as no one was colder and more deadly down the final stretch.
Lykes went a perfect 7-of-7 from the line, which contributed heavily to the Razorbacks' 22-of 25 shooting from the free throw line, which was the difference in this game as New Mexico State finished 6-of-10 from the line.
Where Lykes earned his respect, however, was stepping to the line twice late with the season on the line and not even flinching under the pressure while the announcers did all they could to jinx him verbally by talking about how great of a free throw shooter he is and that he was perfect on the night.
Gregory Fisher / USA TODAY Sports
ONE BAD PLAY CAN KILL A BLOWOUT
As the first half neared an end, Arkansas had been a picture of dominance and found enough offense with athletic superiority the Aggies were on their way to one of the most demoralizing halftime breaks in NCAA history.
The potential for a blowout was looking like a hurricane hanging just off the coast.
But in a game where nothing positive happened for the Aggies, the slightest glimmer of success was going to create momentum, and the Hogs handed them exactly that.
Despite forcing 12 turnovers and completely dominating defensively, Musselman was hot as the Hogs headed into the locker room.
The Razorbacks were up 26-13 with a chance to send New Mexico State into the break with as many turnovers as points.
But, with 1.9 seconds left, Davonte Davis fouled Clayton Henry on a sloppy dive at the last moment that caused him to hit Henry on the head.
Musselman immediately exploded off the bench and lit into Davis. By the time he had to do his halftime interview, Musselman was seething.
That one burst of momentum was all New Mexico State needed to find the juice to keep the game close until the end while the Razorbacks slogged their way to four points in the first 12 minutes of the second half.
Davis did manage to make up for the mistake by sinking two free throws with the game on the line and also threaded the needle between two defenders on a fast break pass to Au'Diese Toney who issued an emphatic slam that dripped with exercising frustration.
Gregory Fisher / USA TODAY Sports
HIDDEN POINTS
Notae tried to spread his 18 points out across the entirety of the game before fouling himself out by committing his fourth charge, which might be a tournament record,
It was what he did on defense, though, that made the difference while definitely setting an NCAA tournament record.
New Mexico State's guards struggled to get the ball across half court against Notae. Multiple times he two two guards out of the play while getting the steal and converting it to transition offense.
Eight times he came away with steals, a tournament record. When he wasn't generating steals, he was smothering whoever he drew as his assignment.
Because he had such a strong defensive performance, there was a collective gasp across Arkansas when he fouled out because of concern about whether the Hogs' perfect defensive game was about to have a giant gap.
Fortunately, Lykes was able to hold his own, continuing the trend of theoretically providing points by denying points by the Aggies.
AU'DIESE TONEY
This is not the place to talk about what Toney did against the Aggies' Teddy Allen. That requires its own story to be shown its proper respect.
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