No. 4-seed\u00a0Vanderbilt Men\u2019s Basketball\u00a0(26-8, 11-8\u00a0SEC)\u00a0took on\u00a0No. 3 seed\u00a0Arkansas\u00a0(26-8, 14-5\u00a0SEC)\u00a0for the coveted SEC Championship trophy on Sunday afternoon. The Commodores earned their way to the championship game by gaining the coveted double-bye\u00a0on the last day of conference play by defeating Tennessee in Knoxville. Then, a week later they downed Tennessee again in the quarterfinal game and then knocked off No.1-seed\u00a0Florida a day later in the semi-final game. Arkansas also gained a double bye downing Oklahoma\u00a0and Ole Miss on its way to the championship game.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Each team was fighting for history and reassertion of its place among the perimeter teams in the conference; Vanderbilt had the ability to go home with its first SEC trophy since 2012 and Arkansas looked for its first since 2000. And because of this history, the game did not disappoint. The largest lead held by either team, until the final minute and a half, was seven points, with 12 lead changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When all was said and done, it was the Razorbacks that emerged victorious with an 86-75 win over the Commodores in a hard-fought, physical performance that featured two scorching hot offenses.<\/p>\n
First half\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Byington opted to roll with the same starting five he had the\u00a0previous\u00a0two games: Duke Miles, Tyler Tanner, Tyler Nickel, AK Okereke and Devin McGlockton\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vanderbilt won the opening tip but was promptly defined by the Arkansas defense.\u00a0The Razorbacks quickly transitioned a pair of stops into offense, putting five points on the board in its first two offensive possessions. The Commodores quickly got themselves back in the game with a layup from McGlockton that drew and and-one and a triple from Miles on back-to-back possessions.\u00a0Another 3-pointer, this\u00a0time from\u00a0Nickel,\u00a0brought the Commodore Faithful to its feet to prompt\u00a0an Arkansas stop,\u00a0and Darius Acuff missed a jumper\u00a0right before the media timeout \u2014 where Vanderbilt\u00a0led\u00a09-7.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
After the break, Trevon Brazile took the lead for the Razorbacks on a triple of his own, which they transitioned into a defensive stop on the other end. Arkansas would climb to a four-point lead by the next media timeout, which happened at the 11:35 mark, in the middle of a 1-for-7 scoring drought from the Commodores.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vanderbilt picked up its second foul right after the break when Chandler Bing made contact with Acuff on a jumper. Okereke brought the game back within two possessions with a made layup but Acuff made up for it with a layup of his own on the other end. The Commodores continue to find some rhythm inside, with Jalen Washington and Nickel finding the board to bring them within two points. Arkansas picked up some momentum when it gained the ball back in its own offensive end on a mishandled rebound between Miles and Tanner, adding two points to its score and putting it up 24-17 with just under eight minutes remaining in the half.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vanderbilt would put up two big stops, capitalizing on the offensive end with a big 3-pointer from Tanner, his first of the game. Nickel would add another on the next possession from well beyond the arc to extend Vanderbilt\u2019s run to 6-0 amid a 2:36 scoring drought for Arkansas, prompting its head coach, John Calipari, to call a timeout. Following the break, Vanderbilt evened the score on yet another 3-pointer. From here, the two teams mostly traded possessions, with the Razorbacks holding a slim two-point advantage at the 3:43 break. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0Nickel brought the stadium to a roar at the 2:46 mark with another deep triple from the top of the arc, his third of the game, to bring Vanderbilt within two and then Miles tied it up with a field goal. Arkansas, just as it had the whole half, punched back, though with a jumper from Billy Richmond III. Miles added a quick four points to Vanderbilt\u2019s score with back-to-back layups but Acuff responded with a pair of triples to give Arkansas a 41-39 lead at the halftime buzzer. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Second half<\/p>\n
A 3-pointer from Okereke gave Vanderbilt a lead over the Razorbacks at the 12:57 mark of the half. A\u00a0basket by Ewin in between would put Arkansas back in front,\u00a0but Nickel made his\u00a0fourth triple of the night to put the \u2018Dores back ahead. On the next possession, Okereke picked up his third\u00a0foul\u00a0and Byington opted to put in\u00a0Washington in his place.\u00a0The Black and Gold took its biggest lead of the game, six points,\u00a0just over five minutes into the second half on a jumper from Washington and forced Arkansas to take a timeout.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Razorbacks rebounded well from the break, bringing it back within one-point at the next media timeout on the back of a\u00a0pair of layups. Then they took the lead on a triple from Wagner and took back the momentum on a deep 3-pointer from Acuff \u2014 his\u00a023rd\u00a0point of the afternoon\u00a0\u2014 that put them in front by five.\u00a0After a media timeout, Vanderbilt still struggled from the field, where, for\u00a08:01\u00a0its only points came from free throws. Washington drew a flagrant, called on Pringle that was able to put the \u2018Dores within one.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The \u2018Dores got a big defensive stop on a tie-up where the possession arrow favored them but were unable to do anything with it, turning\u00a0the ball back over to Arkansas on another tie-up.\u00a0Nickel finally broke Vanderbilt\u2019s scoring drought on a corner three that knotted the\u00a0scored\u00a0at 66-all with just over six minutes left on the clock.\u00a0It was quickly silenced though by back-to-back\u00a0made 3-pointers from Acuff and Wagner to put Arkansas ahead by four.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vanderbilt took a timeout with just four minutes remaining, where it trailed by two.\u00a0A triple from Brazile, the big man, put Arkansas back in front by five. Vanderbilt gained a break when a challenge from Calipari on an out of bounds call was unsuccessful, giving\u00a0the \u2018Dores an inbound on their offensive side of the court. It\u00a0came up\u00a0empty-handed, though,\u00a0when an Okereke 3-point attempt bounced off the rim.\u00a0Brazile then picked up his second three in as many possessions and then made a statement block on Washington on the other end.\u00a0Ewin\u00a0added to the Razorback lead with a layup at 1:38 to give his team their biggest lead of the night, 10-points.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the final minute, Arkansas separated itself, adding to its lead to ultimately take the game 86-75 making Calipari the only coach to take home the SEC Championship with two different programs. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Next up for Vanderbilt Men\u2019s Basketball is the NCAA Tournament Selection show, where it will find out both its seeding and first\/second round matchups, which will air March 15 on CBS at 5 p.m. CDT. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No. 4-seed\u00a0Vanderbilt Men\u2019s Basketball\u00a0(26-8, 11-8\u00a0SEC)\u00a0took on\u00a0No. 3 seed\u00a0Arkansas\u00a0(26-8, 14-5\u00a0SEC)\u00a0for the coveted SEC Championship trophy on Sunday afternoon. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-542520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}