HOOSIER DADDY : Red-hot Weems leads Hogs past Indiana, into second-round matchup with top-seeded UNC
Posted on Saturday, March 22, 2008
RALEIGH, N. C. — Indeed Arkansas can party like it’s 1999.
Because for the first time in five tries since former Nolan Richardson’s Razorbacks won a first-round game in 1999, Arkansas has won one at the NCAA Tournament.
First-year coach John Pelphrey’s Razorbacks defeated Indiana, 86-72 Friday night in the NCAA Tournament’s East Regional at the RBC Center.
Arkansas advances to Sunday’s 4: 20 p. m. (CDT ) second-round game against top-seed and nationally top-ranked North Carolina here.
North Carolina clobbered Mount St. Mary’s 113-74 earlier Friday night.
Regardless of what transpires Sunday, Friday was huge for Arkansas’ six seniors recruited by former coach Stan Heath and finally winning one Friday night at the Big Dance.
“ They are a resilient bunch, ” Pelphrey said of his 23-11 team. “ They have been given up for dead two or three times. The challenge for them is to repeat their success and focus and level of play. Because the next opponent is unbelievable. But they deserve all the credit. ”
“ This feels great, ” Arkansas senior forward Sonny Weems said. “ And if we play one of our best ballgames against North Carolina, we can move this thing forward. ”
“ This is a different ballclub, ” senior center Darian Townes said of the two UA squads he played on that lost first-round games the last two years to Bucknell and Southern California. “ We kept our focus and we had the momentum and we got it done today. ”
All six seniors played a role Friday but none bigger than Weems, the West Memphis native and second-year junior college transfer from Arkansas-Fort Smith.
Weems scored a game-high 31 points Friday.
“ It’s always a sunny day when Sonny Weems plays that way, ” Arkansas sophomore guard Patrick Beverley said.
Beverley helped the elders celebrate by scoring 12 points and playing good defense on Indiana superstar guard Eric Gordon the rare times the Hogs were in man instead of zone.
Senior center Townes played a role subordinate only to Weems double-doubling with 17 points and 12 rebounds.
Senior center Steven Hill helped mightily in defensive tandem against outstanding Indiana center D. J. White.
White scored 22 points with 9 boards but was exhausted and on an I. V. postgame.
Three-point shooting point guard Arman Bassett, 21 points, and White were about all Indiana could muster as Arkansas dominated both halves.
The Hogs held Gordon, averaging 21. 3 points, to just six points. Gordon shot 3 of 15 from the field, 0 for 6 on treys.
Arkansas’ early 9-point second-half lead after a 37-30 half dwindled to three on two straight Arman Bassett treys, the second after Patrick Beverley missed and went flying on a fast break off a steal. Pelphrey called time at 15: 00.
Sixteen seconds later, Charles Thomas enticed the third foul by White, the Hoosiers’ senior All-Big Ten center.
Townes scored over the forced-to-be-cautious White to get Arkansas back up 47-42.
However when Charles Thomas missed a chippie inside and Indiana’s Lance Stemler swished a trey with the shot clock about to elapse, the Arkansas edge was whittled to 49-47.
Hill made a defensive stop on one end and dunked on the other off a Weems pass.
Townes twice followed up to score off offensive rebounds.
Weems more than answered Gordon’s big-time dunk past Hill, and the Hogs again were up nine, 58-49 and briefly 10 again when Gary Ervin made 1 of 2 freebies at 8: 28.
Twice preventing Indiana steals on the same possession, Beverley somehow found Weems for a dunk that had the Hogs up by 10 again. Again ever so briefly after a made Indiana free throw then Bassett’s big trey.
Again the Hogs responded with a Townes two and a Thomas free throw upping the ante to a what proved an insurmountable 70-59 with 4: 04 left.
Arkansas led, 37-30 a first half dominated by the Razorbacks playing zone defense that both protected their tendency to foul and capitalized on Eric Gordon’s late-season shooting slump (1 for 7 in the first half ).
Arkansas scored the game’s first five points, the first tally on senior Vincent Hunter’s trey, then Indiana scored the next seven.
The Hoosiers achieved their biggest first-half lead, 16-11 on White’s basket at 15: 39.
With Charles Thomas, though he would be saddled with two-first half fouls, taking a key charge voiding a Gordon basket, the Hogs caught up with a little technical assistance.
Indiana coach Dan Dakich apparently protested too vehemently Hill’s close shave of a save of a ball going out of bounds.
Weems, who had scored at 13: 16, hit the two free throws to pull Arkansas down to just 16-15 and then Stefan Welsh drilled the first two of two first-half 3-pointers to put Arkansas up, 19-18.
Indiana led once more at 19-18 before Welsh’s second trey and two Townes free throws advanced the Hogs to 23-19.
Welsh was injured and needed assistance to get off the court when he missed his third trey attempt. He did not play again Friday night.
Arkansas pressed on to take two 10-point leads, 35-25 on a Weems trey and 37-27 on a Townes basket at 2: 39, the Hogs’ final score of the half.
Normally, the Hoosiers live on the free-throw line but only attempted four first-half freebies and sank but one.
Arkansas shot a stunning 10 for 10 from the line with Weems and Townes both 4 of 4.
The Hogs nailed 5 of 12 first-half treys while Hill rejected one shot by Gordon and another by DeAndre Thomas, Indiana’s 295-pound starting forward.
Thomas and White both finally wore down in the second half as the surging Hogs at last gave themselves a victory song at the Big Dance.
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