No. 8 Arkansas tops No. 9 Illinois, gets Kansas next
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[March 17, 2023]
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Arkansas survived a second-half slump to
put away Illinois and advance to the second round of the NCAA
Tournament with a 73-63 victory on Thursday.
Ricky Council IV scored 18 points and pulled down 10 rebounds to
lead the eighth-seeded Razorbacks (21-13), who trailed for only 1
minute, 20 seconds and led by as many as 17 in the second half.
Ninth-seeded Illinois committed 17 turnovers but threatened late in
the second half before another Arkansas surge.
"We felt with their size, if we didn't put pressure and big up
three-quarters court, speed them up a little bit, it would be to our
advantage," Arkansas coach Eric Musselman said.
Illinois' Terrence Shannon Jr. had 20 points and RJ Melendez added
10, as did Coleman Hawkins, who had a game-high six turnovers.
Arkansas advances to a second-round matchup Saturday with No. 1 seed
Kansas. The Jayhawks handled Howard 96-68 in the opening game of the
day.
"They were better today," Illinois coach Brad Underwood said of the
Razorbacks. "They were very, very assertive early. I thought their
defense early was the difference."
The Razorbacks nearly fumbled the game away in the final minutes
during a four-minute dry spell marked by repeated turnovers, before
Davonte Davis ripped a pass at midcourt and found Council zipping
through the lane for his only basket of the second half with 1:36
remaining. Council hit two free throws after a defensive stop to put
Arkansas up 66-57.
"Our defense got it started. We held it strong and did what we
needed to do at the other end," Davis said.
Tempers flared as Illinois crawled within 62-57 on a steal and dunk
by Melendez off pressure in the backcourt. Officials separated
players with whistles honking at a play stoppage and Arkansas
timeout at the 2:29 mark.
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Mar 16, 2023; Des Moines, IA, USA;
Illinois Fighting Illini guard Terrence Shannon Jr. (0) passes the
ball against Arkansas Razorbacks guard Davonte Davis (4) during the
first half at Wells Fargo Arena. Mandatory Credit: Reese
Strickland-USA TODAY Sports
Shannon made one of two free throws with 4:15 to go after taking a
defensive rebound end to end. With Arkansas squeezing each second
from the shot clock without points on three consecutive possessions,
Illinois missed three of four free throws, spoiling a chance to
narrow the lead to five.
Makhi Mitchell's spin move around Matthew Mayer for an easy lay-in
stretched the Arkansas lead to 51-36 with 12:30 left in the game.
Mitchell's bucket completed a 10-0 run for the Razorbacks that
spanned 3 minutes, 32 seconds and came as Illinois strained to
maintain possession on offense and contain Arkansas' downhill drives
on the other end.
Melendez brought Illinois back with a personal 8-0 run capped by a
3-pointer from the left wing that hit all net with 8:05 on the
clock, cutting it to 55-46.
Arkansas harassed Illinois' perimeter-based scorers with suffocating
on-ball defense and limited the Fighting Illini to single-shot
possessions.
The Razorbacks led by 10 at halftime, holding Illinois to 26 points,
which included seven made free throws. Illinois was 3-of-11 from
3-point range in the first 20 minutes with a 23.7 turnover
percentage.
--By Jeff Reynolds, Field Level Media
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