Men's Basketball Roundup | Arkansas is riding high
ATLANTA — Steven Hill made one basket the entire game. It might knock Tennessee out of a No. 1 seed in the NCAAs.
Hill hit a turnaround jumper with 5.3 seconds remaining for his only points and Arkansas knocked off fourth-ranked Tennessee 92-91 Saturday in the semifinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament, a serious blow to the Volunteers’ chances of claiming a top spot in one of the NCAA brackets.
“Wherever we’re seeded,” coach Bruce Pearl said defiantly, “we’ll go play.”
The Razorbacks (22-10) surely locked up an NCAA bid and advanced to face Georgia, which won twice Saturday, in today’s championship game. Tennessee (29-4) claimed its first regular-season title in 41 years, then fell short of pulling off a double in the storm-plagued tournament.
The game was played before an estimated crowd of 2,000 at Georgia Tech’s Alexander Memorial Coliseum, where the final two days of the tournament were moved after a tornado ripped through the Georgia Dome during the quarterfinals Friday night.
The teams went back-and-forth the entire game, the last five of 17 lead changes coming in the final three minutes. JuJuan Smith dumped in a layup with 23 seconds left to put Tennessee ahead 91-90, and the Vols called a 30-second timeout to set up their defense.
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