Razorbacks' Technical Flaws Too Costly to Overcome

Getting three technicals leads to five Memphis points in loss at Battle 4 Atlantis

NASSAU, Bahamas — Arkansas never let Memphis get too far away until they dug a hole late in the first half too deep to climb out Thursday afternoon. The Tigers shot nearly 50% from the field and closed out an 84-79 win over the Razorbacks to face Villanova to win the Battle 4 Atlantis.

You could say it was a technical loss. Three technical fouls on the Razorbacks ended up being really big.

"We handed them five points and it was a five-point game," Hogs' coach Eric Musselman said later. "But that's not taking anything from Memphis. They played defense better than we played defense and they played offense better than we played offense."

Khalif Battled led the Hogs with 21 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Trevon Brazile added his second straight double-double, going for 13 points and 10 rebounds with a pair of steals.

The play of the Tigers' David Jones was overwhelming. He finished with a career-high 36 points on 10-of-14 shooting, including 4-of-8 from three-point range. Jones is only a 29.9% career three-point shooter, but he's been on a tear from long range to start this season, now up to 15-for-28 on the year.

"We have never let anybody score 36 points on us," Musselman said. That's not something that usually happens. Even in losses they don't let a single player on the other team go off on them like that.

Memphis earned it, but the Hogs made them work for it at the end. When Davonte Davis went for a dunk instead of a layup, it got blocked, starting a wild finish. The Hogs amped up the defensive effort, getting the ball back with 11.5 left. It took awhile with all the replays.

It's a loss about all Hogs coach Eric Musselman can do is use it for coaching points, but what proved costly is this team is not shooting the ball very well right now. The Razorbacks led 37-36 with 1:09 left in the first half and never got in front again.

Arkansas cut what was, at times, a 76-66 lead with 2:04 to go to just 4, but never could close out the game at the end. At times, it looked like a lot of the Hogs' tournament appearances the last few years, but this is November, not March, and patience has paid off before.

The Hogs' Davis did end up with 15 points to reach 1,001 total for his career. He'll think about that later, when it will be a milestone. "We lost the game," he said. "Now it's get ready for the next one."

That will come against North Carolina on Friday at noon on ESPN2 and fuboTV. You will have to watch the game live because radio will be hard to find with the pregame football show on radio stations starting then.

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