FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas only led Western Kentucky once in the final 15:37 of Saturday's game at Bud Walton Arena.
Daniel Gafford put the Razorbacks (6-2) ahead, 77-76, on a putback off of teammate Isaiah Joe's airball with 45 seconds left in the game. The lead did not last and neither did Arkansas' 28-game non-conference winning streak at Bud Walton.
Marek Nelson tallied a wide open layup with 19 seconds left for a 78-77 victory for Western Kentucky (5-4) after center Charles Bassey blocked Gafford's shot with one second left.
The Hilltoppers were led by 21 points, nine rebounds and five blocks from Bassey, a native of Nigeria and a former prep All-America at St. Anthony's in San Antonio. Jared Savage scored 21 points, including 5 of 7 shooting on 3-pointers, and Taveion Hollingsworth added 17 points, with 3-for-8 shooting on threes.
New starter Dalano Banton hit the other of Western Kentucky's 9-for-22 treys to snap a 70-70 tie. Arkansas freshman guard Desi Sills scored the previous bucket to tie the game.
Freshman guard Isaiah Joe led Arkansas with 19 points, including 16 in the first half. The Razorbacks took a 41-33 lead into halftime.
Gafford scored 17 points with nine rebounds, two steals and two blocks. Sophomore guards Mason Jones and Jalen Harris scored 15 and 13 points, respectively, with Harris dealing seven assists versus zero turnovers.
Arkansas head coach Mike Anderson said only Sills was effective off of what had been a recently effective team bench.
"First off, give Western Kentucky a lot of credit," Anderson said. "I thought they came in with the right mindset. In the end, they wanted it more than we did.
"I thought we looked sluggish on defense in terms of getting to spots and it came down to making plays. Making plays and making free throws. You go back over the course of the game and free throws kind of add up. They made theirs, especially the big guy."
Arkansas was only 9 of 16, 56.25 percent at the free throw line, while Western Kentucky hit 11 of 17, 64.7 percent. Bassey made 7 of 8.
"He was making free throws going down the stretch," Anderson said.
Gafford has struggled with free throws in the past, but he made all three of his attempts on Saturday and Jones was 2-for-2. The rest of the team combined to shoot 4-for-11, 44.4 percent, with misses on the front end of two one-and-ones in the first half.
"That's just a mental thing," Sills said. "We're going to get in practice tomorrow and we're going to take it from there."
"Well first off, we knew coming into here it's not just a very difficult place to play because of your fans," said Western Kentucky second-year head coach Rick Stansbury, who is familiar with Fayetteville as a longtime head coach at Mississippi State and a recent assistant coach at Texas A&M.
"It's a difficult place to play because of the team you've got between those lines. And I'll tell you, Mike's got the most improved or surprising team in the Southeastern Conference this year. I know you guys, for them to come into this game being whatever they were after losing all those players they lost last year, they're much better than anybody ever anticipated them being."
Stansbury said he was pleased by his team's performance.
"Give our guys credit," Stansbury said. "They did two things today that you've got to do on the road to win that I've been preaching and hadn't really seen it.
"That is, you've got to have that grit. Where's our toughness and where's that grit at? That overcomes a lot of things. I saw it today."
It helped that the Hilltoppers shot 50 percent, 29 of 58, to Arkansas' 30 of 69 for 45.5 percent.
"No matter what you do defensively, you've got to make shots," Stansbury said.
The battle of the big men lived up to its billing between Gafford and Bassey.
"Well our guy is pretty good," Stansbury said. "And Gafford is a terrific player."
Western Kentucky often controlled the first-half tempo, but Arkansas controlled the first-half scoreboard. The Razorbacks jumped out to a 13-4 lead and, other than one 22-22 tie, led the entire first half.
Joe's three broke the 22-22 tie for a 3-point lead that Arkansas twice pushed to eight. His trey from the corner with 34 seconds left achieved the 41-33 lead at intermission.
Arkansas first took an eight-point lead on a breakaway layup by Joe that induced a flagrant foul call on Western Kentucky guard Josh Anderson, who was ejected from the game. Joe hit one of his two freebies, but he only made 2 of 5 in the game.
Anderson noted Arkansas has usually been a second-half team this season, but the Razorbacks sluggishly opened the second stanza. The eight-point lead was gone by 16:42.
Sills scored all nine of his points in the second half. Anderson said the freshman "willed us back in the game."
The only other reserve player to score was freshman forward Reggie Chaney, who had four points in 14 minutes. Arkansas' bench outscored Colorado State's, 38-7, in a 98-74 win on Wednesday in Fort Collins, Colo.
The Hogs took the lead late, but the defense broke down on Nelson's final layup. They were unable to score on the other end despite two shot opportunities.
"The guy (Bassey) made a good play," Anderson said. "The play before that, all you've got do is defend.
"I don't know how, we had a guy (Gafford) fall, and left the big guy wide open and somebody came over to help and Nelson gets a wide open layup. So, that's a breakdown in your defense."
Officials Brian Shey and Will Howard worked as a two-man crew after the third official was reportedly injured in an automobile accident on the way to the game. Not surprisingly, the winning coach was more pleased with the officiating.
"I said, 'Hey it's good.' That's one less guy we've got to worry about being bad," Stansbury joked after the game. "So, we've just got two of you guys.
"Most of the times I've been up here, we've had three bad ones. We're just going to have two bad ones this time, so I told them that. So hey, it is what it is. They did as good a job as they could do."
How did Anderson think the two-man crew impacted the game?
"No comment," Anderson replied.
Arkansas lost before an announced crowd of 9,349. The Razorbacks will next play on Saturday after a week of final exams at the university against UT-San Antonio (3-6) at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock.
Sports on 12/09/2018