NORTH LITTLE ROCK — Playing at Simmons Bank Arena drew maybe the most raucous crowd of the year for Arkansas and it helped, but it was a block by Adrio Bailey that made it happen.
And it came against Javon Freeman-Liberty, the Valparaiso player who caused a bell gong going off at practice Thursday with maddening regularity.
He had what initially appeared to be a drive for a dunk with the Hogs leading 68-65 late … until Bailey came flying in to swat it away and provide the spark in a 72-68 win Saturday night.
“It really saved the game for us,” Eric Musselman said later.
Bailey saw it coming when Freeman-Liberty got past Jimmy Whitt, Jr., and sailed down the baseline.
“He had to meet me (at the rim),” Bailey said later. “I was either getting dunked on or that’s my block.”
It was Bailey’s fifth block in the game (tying a career game high) and was just part of a night where he scored 10 points, snatched five rebounds and found time to get three steals. That scoring total also included a pair of 3-pointers.
“Adrio was awesome,” Musselman said. “We only made 10 3’s tonight, and Adrio made two on three attempts, and then the blocks.”
Mason Jones, who scored 20 points in the game behind Isaiah Joe’s 21, has seen Bailey do it before.
“To be honest, I don’t even think that’s Adrio’s best block,” said Jones later. “I’ve known Adrio since ninth grade — since I was fat kid in high school — and Adrio was still my friend. I’ve seen some incredible things Adrio did through high school and college.
“That block right there, it has to be in his top five because that block led to so much momentum. The crowd jumped off of it and it was a big stop. We were winning and, like he said, it was him and Freeman-Liberty, and he got a good block. I’m glad he got it.”
Bailey just shrugged it off.
But that was something the Razorbacks had to have or who knows if they win the game. It would have sent a record 15,540 fans home disappointed that were loud and engaged to the very end.
“If we’re playing in an empty gym, we might not win that game,” Musselman said. “I can tell everybody in North Little Rock and anybody that came to the game, if we’re playing outdoors somewhere five-on-five, we don’t win without that loud crowd tonight.”
Instead it makes for a happy holiday for everybody.
“It wouldn’t have been a very good Christmas, I can tell you that, at least not in my household if we would have lost … if I would have been allowed in,” Musselman said.
The Hogs have struggled and even lost the last several years playing in North Little Rock. It’s been a mystery why teams that have played well struggled coming to the central part of the state.
Maybe it’s the anticipation of the holidays. It’s a good bet if anybody had the answer it would be fixed.
Musselman didn’t appear he was going to worry about it for awhile. He was (correctly) willing to take the game.
“We’re 10-1 and we didn’t play as well as we have played for the most of the year,” he said. “But we still won a game.”
And in the end that’s really all that matters.
