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Weems leads Arkansas over Vandy

Sat 1st, March 2008

Fayetteville, AR (Sports Network) - Sonny Weems scored 20 points and the Arkansas Razorbacks gave 18th-ranked Vanderbilt a taste of its own medicine, upsetting the Commodores, 78-73, in the first game since Vandy toppled top- ranked Tennessee.

On Tuesday, the Vols visited Vanderbilt and were turned away, 72-69, making them the latest victims of Vandy's assault of No. 1 squads at Memorial Gym. The Commodores have conquered the last four top-ranked foes to make the trip to Nashville.

Saturday, though, it was Vanderbilt finding itself on the wrong end of an upset. It was a somewhat familiar outcome: the Commodores have won just once in nine tries in Fayetteville.

Patrick Beverley tallied 17 points, including 5-of-7 shooting from beyond the arc, and reeled in seven rebounds for the Razorbacks (19-9, 8-6 SEC), who stopped a two-game skid and had dropped four of five entering the clash. Gary Ervin and Darian Townes added 13 points apiece, helping the Hogs improve to 14-1 at Bud Walton Arena.

"Our record at home sounds awfully good," Arkansas coach John Pelphrey said. "The passion and excitement of our fans is just great. We played with great heart and toughness against a really good basketball team. Being at home really helped motivate our guys to overachieve."

Shan Foster finished a milestone day with 22 points, shooting 6-for-8 from three-point range for Vanderbilt (24-5, 9-5), passing Matt Freije's mark of 1,891 points set in 2004 to become the program's all-time leading scorer with 1,894 points. A.J. Ogilvy contributed 20 points on 8-of-13 field goal shooting for the Commodores, who had a seven-game win streak stopped. Ross Neltner notched 14 points and hauled in six boards, as Vandy slipped to 4-5 on the road.

"I was really frustrated with the way we played," Ogilvy said. "If we didn't have so many fouls, we would have had a better chance of winning."

The teams traded blows down the stretch, going back-and-forth all the way to the conclusion of the contest.

With just over a minute to go, the Commodores drove down the court facing a two-point deficit, 70-68, with an opportunity to tie or even take the lead. However, Vandy missed five shots on the possession, grabbing an incredible four offensive rebounds before Ervin finally cleaned up the glass for Arkansas with 32 seconds left and was almost immediately fouled.

Despite a Vanderbilt timeout between his free throws, Ervin calmly connected on both shots from the stripe, giving the Razorbacks a 72-68 edge with 26 seconds remaining.

On the ensuing possession, Foster received a pass on the left wing, pulled up and buried the bucket from beyond the arc, becoming the Commodores all-time leading scorer and pulling Vandy within a point, 72-71, with 14.6 seconds on the clock.

Unable to snare a steal, Vanderbilt had no choice but to continually foul, and Arkansas converted all eight of its foul shot attempts in the final 30 seconds of the showdown to seal the victory.

Trailing by three points in the early-going, Arkansas used a 14-2 flurry to gain a sizeable advantage. Townes drained a jumper to cap the burst, and the Razorbacks went on top, 18-9, with 11:08 to play.

The Hogs lead hovered around double-digits through the remainder of the first frame, until the Commodores came back to close out the half with an 8-0 spurt. An Ogilvy layup was sandwiched between a pair from beyond the arc, as Neltner's three sparked the surge and Foster's three sealed it with just five seconds showing on the clock, and the Arkansas advantage was trimmed to 40-36 as the squads headed to the locker rooms.

After the intermission, Vanderbilt ripped off a 10-1 run to take its first lead of the affair since it was 7-6 at the 15:20 mark of the opening half. Foster nailed back-to-back buckets from beyond the arc to end the scoring streak, and the Commodores pushed ahead, 48-47, with 13:20 remaining.

Game Notes

Arkansas leads the all-time series, 14-7...Vanderbilt head coach Kevin Stallings has a career 2-7 record against the Razorbacks and is 0-4 in Fayetteville. Arkansas is one of only two places in the SEC where he has never won (Mississippi State)...The teams combined to connect on a remarkable 19- of-36 (52.8 percent) three-pointers...The Hogs shot an incredible 58.3 percent from the field, netting 28-of-48 field goals...Vandy finished with 26-of-60 field goal shooting (43.3 percent).

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