Despite an overall miserable performance from the free-throw line Saturday night, freshman isaiah Joe made a couple in the final 12 seconds and Arkansas escaped with a 73-71 win over Texas A&M.
The Razorbacks were 50 percent at the line for the game and that’s exactly what Joe did in the final seconds, hitting 2-of-4 free throws.
It helped after the Aggies came down with a chance to make a 3 to tie the game at 72 that Christian Mekowulu grabbed a missed shot and instead of kicking it back out for a game-tying 3-pointer sank a layup to cut the Hogs’ lead to 72-71 with two seconds left.
A&M then fouled Joe and put him on the line for two shots and, keeping with the team’s average for the game, he missed the first one, but sank the second one and Arkansas had the win.
In Thursday’s press conference previewing the game, Mike Anderson had talked about rebounding being big and the Hogs won the battle on the boards, 47-42.
Daniel Gafford led the rebounding with 11, but Gabe Osabuohien had seven, a few coming in the final minutes of the game that proved to be huge.
Jalen Harris led the Hogs’ scorers with 15 points, Desi Sills had 14 while Gafford and Joe scored 11 each.
As a team, Arkansas shot just 37 percent from the field (26-of-70) while A&M hit 61 percent.
The Hogs were nailing 3-pointers in the second half, though. making 10-of-33 while the Aggies were just 5-of-24.
The Razorbacks, now 10-3 overall, will host Florida on Wednesday night at Bud Walton Arena in a 7:30 start.
