Hogs down 'Dores
Bart Pohlman
Issue date: 3/3/08 Section: Sports
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The Razorbacks played stingy defense and made their free throws down the stretch to come away with a 78-73 win over No. 18 Vanderbilt.
Sonny Weems scored 20 points and Patrick Beverley added 17 to lead the Razorbacks (19-9, 8-6 Southeastern Conference), who clinched second place in the SEC Western Division with the win.
Darian Townes, who scored 13 points in his first start of the season, said the Razorbacks still have work to do, but the win was a good one.
"[The win] was really big," Townes said. "[The Commodores] were a ranked team that just finished beating a really good Tennessee team, who only had the No. 1 spot for a couple hours."
Arkansas started the game off strong, building the lead up to as many as 12 points in the first half.
But Vanderbilt responded, using an 8-0 run in the last three minutes of the half to cut the Razorback lead to 40-36 heading into intermission.
The Commodores came out firing after the break and eventually took the lead after a pair of 3-pointers by Shan Foster.
From that point on, the game turned into a battle of attrition, with both teams desperately seeking a win in a game that saw 10 lead changes in the final 13:17.
But Arkansas was the team to endure a chaotic final minute and a half and secure the win.
After Gary Ervin hit one of two free throws to put the Hogs ahead 70-68 with 1:27 to play, the Razorbacks survived a near minute long possession by the Commodores, ending when the 6-foot-0 Ervin grabbed a rebound and was fouled.
Ervin hit both free throws to put the Hogs up by four, but Foster responded with a 3-pointer to cut the lead to one.
Weems was promptly fouled by Alex Gordon, and calmly sank two free throws to put Arkansas up by three.
The Razorbacks decided to foul the Commodores before they could get a shot off, which proved to be costly for Vanderbilt.
After Jermaine Beal hit his second of two free throws, senior forward Ross Neltner turned to an official and called a timeout the Commodores didn't have.
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