Hogs Knocked Out of SEC Tournament
NASHVILLE — Dusty Hannahs led Arkansas with a career-high 33 points, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Florida in the second round of the 2016 SEC Tournament, as the Gators defeated the Razorbacks 68-61 on Thursday afternoon.
With the loss, Arkansas was eliminated from the bracket and fell to 16-16 on the season.
Hannahs scored 54 percent of his team’s points, including 24 of the 38 in the second half. The junior led all scorers in the game with his 13th 20-point game of the season. It was the Razorbacks’ first 30-point effort all year and the team’s first since Michael Qualls scored 30 against Alabama on Jan. 15, 2015. Hannahs became the third Razorback in school history to score at least 30 points in an SEC Tournament game.
Battling foul trouble, Moses Kingsley pulled down 14 rebounds to tie a career high. He also added 10 points to record his 16th double-double and 30th double-digit scoring effort of the season.
Jabril Durham led the team with six assists compared to only two turnovers. The senior finished the year with 204 dishes, becoming the fourth player in program history to eclipse the 200-assist plateau in a single season.
Coming out of halftime with a 29-23 deficit, Anthlon Bell came out with a driving layup to bring the game within four. That’s the closest Arkansas would get for quite some time, however, as the Florida lead got out to as many as 11 at the 16:22 mark.
Just as they did on Senior Day, the Razorbacks began to chip away little by little, with Hannahs leading the charge. An 11-4 run over the next five minutes brought the score to 46-42 and it was a tense race the rest of the way.
Two free throws from Hannahs with four minutes remaining made it a three-point game, then Florida pushed back to make it a 60-53 contest at the 3:06 mark. As the Arkansas situation seemed to be dire, back came the Razorbacks with a 6-0 spurt, capped by a Hannahs layup to bring the game within one with 67 seconds left.
But the Gators finished the game on an 8-2 run to clinch the contest with a seven-point win. Mike White’s 19-13 club will now move on to face No. 1 seed Texas A&M on Friday.
QUICK HITS
• Dusty Hannahs finished with a career-high 33 points on 12-of-23 shooting from the field and 7-for-7 shooting from the foul line.
• It was Hannahs’ 13th 20-point game of the season and the team’s first 30-point effort all year.
• Over the last seven games, Hannahs averaged a team-best 19 points.
• Hannahs joined Todd Day and Corliss Williamson as the only Razorbacks to ever score 30 points in an SEC Tournament game.
• Over the last seven games, Jabril Durham dished out 45 assists and committed only five turnovers.
• Durham finished the year with 204 assists, the fourth-most in a single season in program history.
• Moses Kingsley tallied a career-high 14 rebounds and finished with 10 points for his 16th double-double of the season.
• Kingsley notched five double-doubles in the final eight games of the season.
• Anthlon Bell failed to make a three-pointer for the first time this season. He had at least one in each of the team’s previous 31 games.
• The Razorbacks finished the year at 216-for-544 (.397) from beyond the arc this season, besting the program’s best-ever mark of .395 during the 1992-93 campaign.
• Arkansas grabbed 45 rebounds against Florida, it was the fourth time this season the team grabbed 45-plus boards in a game.
• The Razorbacks are now 22-24 in 25 SEC Tournament appearances.
