Cold Commodores Fall To Arkansas 60-50 2/26/03

Doomed by 30 percent shooting on a night when there seemed to be a lid on the bucket, the Commodores fall to Arkansas 60-50 Wednesday night in Memorial Gym.

The winter air from outside appeared to creep into Memorial Gym as both teams had trouble finding the goal. After the Commodores trimmed the lead to five with two minutes to go, Arkansas used the charity stripe to break their five game losing streak.

The Commodores opened the game like they were on a mission to quickly establish they were kings of this court. Vanderbilt nailed their first two shots from long range to take an early 6-0 lead.

As if there was a rule to only shoot three pointers, the Razorbacks’ first shots were also good from behind the arc. The Hogs put together a 15-2 run to take a seven point lead.

Arkansas eventually built the lead to eight before Vanderbilt sophomore David Przybyszewski turns the tide with a mid-range jumper.

The story of the first half was the inspired play of freshman forward Julian Terrell. Terrell sparked an 11-0 run that gave the Commodores the lead at 27-25. The final bucket of the run came on a thunderous dunk by Terrell that brought the 9,681 fans that braved the weather to their feet. Terrell also went 4-for-4 from the line which illustrated how hard he has been working on his shot.

The game went to halftime tied at 29.

The Hogs stormed out of the locker room and outscored Vanderbilt 14-2 early in the second half to set the tone for the rest of the game. Playing with a 10-point lead for most of the half, Arkansas spread the court and worked the clock to its advantage.

With the Commodores still in the game and playing incredible defense, Arkansas orchestrated a play that would break the Commodores’ backs. Freije managed to swat away a shot that went out of bounds leaving only one second on the shot clock. Inbounding the ball from under their own basket, Arkansas connected on a perfectly timed alley-oop that seemed to take all the life out of the Commodores.

The typically poor shooting Razorbacks, 12th in the SEC in free throw percentage, were able to hang on to steal a tough road win by canning 10-of-12 attempts down the stretch.

Freije utilized two late three pointers to score a team-high 15 points on the night.

“The game was lost on our offensive end,” according to head coach Kevin Stallings.

Vanderbilt will hit the road to face the South Carolina Gamecocks Saturday at 4 pm CT. The game will be televised by Fox Sports South.