Razorbacks (9-0) drop dogged 49ers

NO. 12 ARKANSAS 86, UNC-CHARLOTTE 66

FAYETTEVILLE — University of Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman doesn’t like to call timeouts, but he made an exception after UNC-Charlotte cut the Razorbacks’ lead from 18 to nine points.

It turned out to be a good call.

The No. 12 Razorbacks beat the 49ers 86-66 on Tuesday night at Walton Arena with a 13-2 run to close the game.

A jump shot by sophomore guard Davonte “Devo” Davis gave Arkansas a 63-45 lead with 11:14 to play, but the 49ers didn’t fold.

Austin Butler and Luka Vasic hit back-to-back three-pointers to pull UNCC within 73-64 with 5:47 left and prompted the timeout from Musselman.

“Coach Muss knows how good we can be, and we know if he’s honest, that he’s just trying to push us to be as best as we can,” sophomore forward Jaylin Williams said. “He knew we could do better, so that’s how it was.”

Musselman said it wasn’t a surprise the 49ers rallied.

“You’re going to go through stretches where the other team outplays you during the course of a game,” he said. “It doesn’t happen often where you outplay somebody for 40 straight minutes. Give Charlotte credit.”

But the last 5:02 — when Davis scored on a layup to make it 75-64 — belonged to Arkansas.

The Razorbacks (9-0) scored 10 consecutive points, including six from Davis, to push their lead to 83-64 as the 49ers missed six shots and had a turnover.

“I thought we were really good late in the game,” Musselman said.

“[Musselman] basically just told us we’ve got to get some stops on the other end, that it was too easy [for UNCC], and it was,” said senior guard JD Notae, who led the Razorbacks with 23 points, 10 rebounds and 4 steals “So he wanted to come out and just make it tougher.

The Razorbacks finished inside with baskets — two from Davis and each from senior guard Chris Lykes and Notae. Davis also drew a foul and hit two free throws.

Davis, who had a season-high 18 points, got his career-high eighth assist on a three-pointer by Khalen Robinson. Davis also had five of Arkansas’ 13 assists, though Musselman said that number was deceiving.

“We’ve got to have our hands ready when Devo’s got the ball,” Musselman said. “We’re having way too many turnovers where he’s making the pass and we’re not catching it, whether it be in traffic or whatever.

“We do have to clean up the turnovers for sure. Thirteen’s too many. But I thought Devo played with great freedom with the ball for sure.”

Wiliams had a career-high 15 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 assists. He hit 7 of 9 shots.

“His efficiency, to go 7 of 9, that’s hard to do,” Musselman said. “I thought he played phenomenal. Maybe his best all-around game.

“The three steals become very important because Charlotte goes through [6-11 Aly Khalifa] as kind of a point-center. They run a lot of their dribble-handoff stuff with him.

“Jaylin did a good job kind of pushing him outside his comfort zone, as well. … Kind of owning the elbow.”

Lykes scored 13 points off the bench. Senior forward Au’Diese Toney had six points and rebounds.

UNCC (4-4) was led by senior guard Austin Butler’s 14 points.

Sophomore guard Jahmir Young added 10 points for the 49ers.

Young, who was guarded by Davis Notae and Lykes, came into the game averaging 19.7 points and had 26 last Saturday when the 49ers beat George Washington 86-79.

“Devo was assigned to Young,” Musselman said. “The other four guys were supposed to shrink the floor a little bit against him. We did not want him to make any threes, which would then open up his dribble-drives.”

Young finished 0 of 5 on three-pointers.

“By far this was Chris Lykes’ best defensive game,” Musselman said. “I thought he was a menace out there defensively. There’s been times maybe where we needed Chris to get a little bit better. Tonight, he took a huge leap forward from a defensive standpoint for sure.”

Arkansas freshman Cade Arbogast played Young on the Razorbacks’ scout team in practice.

“Whenever Young on our scout team had the ball, we had a siren going because we didn’t want him to get going,” Musselman said.

Arkansas shot 53.1% (34 of 64) and outrebounded UNCC 41-21. In the first half when the Razorbacks took a 41-31 lead, they outscored the 49ers 14-0 on second-chance and 11 offensive rebounds while UNCC had none.

“Rebounding is always one of the main focuses for us,” Williams said. “And I feel like that’s one of the things we’re really good at, is getting rebounds.”

Musselman said that coming out of the late timeout, he told his players they wouldn’t go into an offensive set until 12 seconds were left on the shot clock.

“We milked the clock from about 5:30 to 3:30, got that thing back up where I thought we were in a safe zone,” Musselman said. “I think we did that for three possessions. We got some stops at the other end, scored, and then I let them play so I didn’t have to hear anything on Twitter about playing stall-ball.”