Ricky Council says ‘desperation’ was key to success vs. South Carolina

Arkansas nearly cost themselves on Saturday in Columbia with South Carolina almost coming back and knocking them off. However, junior guard Ricky Council IV said the Razorbacks drew a line in the sand in order to avoid the scare from the Gamecocks.

Council said after the game that the 65-63 victory came down to how desperate he and his teammates were. They knew what a loss like this would do to their postseason resume so, in the end, finding a way to not lose was the only thing that mattered.

“The key to this game was desperation. We knew we couldn’t lose this game. We had games that were must-wins but this was a must-win,” said Council. “They’re still a good team but they’re one of the bottom teams in the league. We knew we couldn’t lose this game because we were on a hot streak. And this was going to be a big game going into March as far as seeding or even making it. So we knew we couldn’t lose and just had to click that in our heads.”

Arkansas led by as much as 13 inside Colonial Life Arena as they played for their fourth win in five games. Over the final 15 minutes, though, South Carolina cut the lead to single digits. They even took a couple of leads within the last four minutes.

Even so, Council and the Razorbacks dug in, took the lead back, and got one last stop on a three with two seconds left to win.

With the Gamecocks sitting at 8-15 and 1-9 in the SEC, this is a loss that no team that wants to be postseason-bound can suffer at this point of the season. That’s what got Arkansas’ attention at the end from what Council said. The thought of that woke them up and helped them pick up their fourth straight conference victory.

“We were desperate. We couldn’t lose that game. At all costs,” Council said. “There’s been conversations all week, conversations leading up to the game that we couldn’t lose the game. It was a must-win. We got lackadaisical for a little bit but, when that clicked back in our heads, we were good.”