Oklahoma Falls Just Short Against Arkansas in SEC Tournament Quarterfinals

The Sooners’ run at the SEC Tournament has come to an end.

Oklahoma fell 82-79 to Arkansas in the quarterfinals. OU’s loss snaps its six-game winning streak, which included the Sooners’ wins over South Carolina and Texas A&M in the first two rounds of the SEC tourney.

OU is 19-15 overall with the loss, while Arkansas improved to 24-8.

Here are three takeaways from the game:

Razorbacks escape in final minute

OU and Arkansas went back and forth for the first 15 minutes of the second half before Arkansas began to pull away — but the Sooners didn’t go away.

A 10-2 Arkansas run got the Razorbacks’ lead to seven points, but the Sooners responded in the final minutes to get back within striking distance. With 53 seconds left, Tae Davis made a pair of free throws to make it a two-point game.

On Arkansas’ ensuing possession, Mohamed Wague swatted a floater from Razorbacks guard Darius Acuff Jr. with five seconds left on the shot clock. Acuff, though, caught the inbounds pass and made an off-balanced, long 2-pointer from the corner to give Arkansas a 79-75 lead.

Xzayvier Brown scored a quick transition bucket before the Sooners went into fouling mode. Meleek Thomas made both of his attempts to again make it a four-point game, but Davis made a layup to bring the deficit back to two points.

Acuff made one of his two free-throw attempts, giving OU one last chance to tie the game, but Nijel Pack’s three-point attempt went wayward, and the Razorbacks escaped with their three-point victory.

Acuff explodes

Acuff’s sensational night extended well past his heroic shot in the final minute — he singlehandedly kept the Razorbacks in the game in the first half.

The guard scored 21 of Arkansas’ 37 first-half points. He shot 7-of-10 from the field and made four 3-pointers over the first 20 minutes, while the rest of the team went 6-of-21 and made just one three. Though his supporting cast struggled early on, the Razorbacks went to the locker room trailing by only two.

Acuff got off to a slow start in the second half, making only one of his first five attempts from the floor. But he kicked into another gear late and ultimately helped send the Razorbacks to the semifinals of the SEC Tournament.

Acuff finished the contest with 37 points on 11-of-21 shooting, and he made five of his nine attempts on 3-pointers. He entered Friday’s game averaging 22.2 points, 6.4 assists and 3 rebounds per game.

Selection Sunday stress

Oklahoma will now have to sweat through Selection Sunday.

The Sooners likely would have been in the field of 68 with a win, but now it seems like a coin flip on whether or not they will be selected for the NCAA Tournament.

ESPN’s Joe Lunardi currently has Oklahoma as his first team out of the field. CBS Sports, though, had Oklahoma as one of its “last four byes,” prior to Friday’s games, meaning that the Sooners would skip past the First Four in Dayton.

Oklahoma entered the day ranked No. 47 in the NET rankings, which are used heavily by the NCAA Tournament selection committee to choose its field. The Sooners must hope for teams like Ole Miss, New Mexico, San Diego State and VCU to lose in their respective conference tournaments, as bid stealers would shrink the number of at-large teams selected.