With 5:52 left to play it appeared the Arkansas Razorbacks were going to enjoy a road win in the SEC.
On a 34-15 run, they had wiped out a 19-point deficit and tied the game at 70-70 on two free throws by Darius Acuff Jr.
It seemed the Hogs had grabbed all the momentum in Stegeman Coliseum, and the No. 21 Georgia Bulldogs had missed a golden opportunity.
Only a couple of things jumped up and bit the Razorbacks hard.
The Razorbacks couldn’t have bought a field goal if they were on sale at Walmart.
The next six minutes after tying game they had one field goal and just four free throws.
During that time they suffered four turnovers, and Georgia, which had 29 points off turnovers, used the four errors to maintain the lead that it held for 38:53 of the game.
The Bulldogs, who won 90-76, never trailed. Not once. It was tied for 1:07.
John Calipari and Michael White never relaxed. They coached every dribble and every shot.
With two minutes to play — which is a lot of time in basketball — and the Hogs down 10, Calipari was frantically drawing on his play board, and on the other end of the court White was doing the same.
It didn’t come down to coaching but consistent execution.
Give Georgia credit. Staring into the eyes of defeat the Bulldogs buckled down and took it to Arkansas with aggressiveness on both ends of the court. The ‘Dogs ran with the big Hogs.
Once again, the Razorbacks never quit, but they didn’t protect the ball and finished with 18 turnovers.
When the Razorbacks fell behind 31-14 midway through the first half it was like watching the same game a week earlier when they were handled by Auburn.
This time it was Georgia hitting the boards, creating turnovers and contesting every shot.
Arkansas scrapped and clawed and got within 37-28 as the Bulldogs suddenly struggled against the Hogs’ man-to-man defense. The Razorbacks protected the paint, but not so much behind the arc, as Georgia hit five consecutive three-pointers and another field goal at one point to build the lead back to 45-32 at intermission.
The Razorbacks finished the half 1-of-10 shooting and went into intermission 14 of 34 from the field, but they had 11 turnovers that the Bulldogs converted into 17 points while holding the visitors to a pair of field goals off their six turnovers.
While the Hogs were falling behind Georgia outscored them 18-8 in the paint, but Arkansas got more aggressive and finished with a 46-36 advantage down low.
Arkansas had started slow rebounding but picked that up, too.
One of the surprises when Arkansas bounced back from Auburn with a 108-74 win over South Carolina was that the Hogs had 27 assists.
In the first half Saturday they had five assists. They would finish with 13.
They didn’t start the game with assertiveness, and Georgia was good enough, poised enough, to take advantage of it.
Arkansas attempted only seven three-pointers in the first half, making just one, but was forced to attempt 14 in the second half. The four the Hogs made were when they went on the run to tie the game.
The Razorbacks had more points in the paint and got more from their bench than the Bulldogs, but an eight-man rotation cannot come out slow. Even though they made a run that made the final score respectable, some of the poor shooting had to have something to do with tired legs.
Arkansas is now 13-5 overall and 3-2 in league play, but there’s a lot of basketball left to be played. It will be up to the players to decide how they start and finish a game.
It was a good effort, but not for 40 minutes.
