Eric Musselman shares how Arkansas turned things around against Missouri

Eric Musselman’s team had to dig deep on Wednesday night. After going down as much as 17 midway through the first half against Missouri, Arkansas was able to cut that lead to seven at halftime and, in the end, come all the way back in the second half to win 74-68 in the Top-25 matchup.

After the victory, Musselman pointed to several reasons why the Razorbacks were able to beat the Tigers. Amongst those points was the pace of play, defense, fastbreak points, and their combination of offensive boards and second-chance opportunities.

“Obviously (our) second-half pace of play with 47 points (helped). And then, defensively, we held them to 34 in both halves,” said Musselman. “Missouri’s a really good offensive team. So to think we outscored them in fastbreak points is a key statistic because of their pace of play. And then I thought the 15 offensive rebounds and the 17 second chance points really, really helped us.”

With Missouri bringing one of the nation’s best offenses into Bud Walton Arena, the Razorbacks knew they’d need to be at the top of their game. The slow start certainly didn’t help but, by the time the final buzzer sounded, Arkansas outscored the Tigers 66-43 over the final 28 minutes. Hanging 47 over the final 20 minutes, scoring seven more fastbreak points, and getting 15 offensive boards which led to 17 second-chance points were all vital by the end of the game.

In this scenario, the Razorbacks could have very easily laid down and started 0-2 in SEC play. However, without Nick Smith Jr. and Trevon Brazile, Arkansas has had to find new ways to win. They got creative again last night and earned an impressive win as their first of the conference season. They’ll now look to make it a streak as they head down to The Jungle and face Auburn this weekend.