Alabama rallies past Arkansas

FAYETTEVILLE – Alabama used a 12-0 run midway through the second half to take control and post a 69-58 victory over Arkansas in Bud Walton Arena on Sunday.

The loss drops the Razorbacks to 12-15 overall and 4-10 in the Southeastern Conference while the Crimson Tide improves to 11-16 and 3-11. Arkansas entered the game with consecutive wins over Auburn, South Carolina and Ole Miss.

Arkansas led the entire first half and rallied from a four-point second half deficit to take a 37-35 lead on a Lyndsay Harris jumper with 13:40 remaining.

Over the next four minutes, Alabama scored 12 unanswered points.

Alabama got buckets from Carmen McCoy, Dedrea Magee, a three-point play from Tierney Jenkins, a layup from LaToya King and a three-pointer from Alyson Butler for a 47-37 lead with 9:37 remaining.

C’eira Ricketts’ three at the 9:21 mark stopped the run and pulled the Razorbacks within 47-40, but Alabama scored 16 of the next 20 points for a 63-44 lead with 4:49 to go.

Arkansas cut the deficit to 63-54 on a Harris three with 1:41 remaining, but King, Jenkins and Russell combined for five free throws and Alabama led 68-55 with 46 seconds left.

Skye Rees hit a three to get Arkansas within 10, but the Razorbacks got no closer.

"It’s disappointing and frustrating," Arkansas head coach Tom Collen said. "We lost it in the first half when we didn’t take advantage of Alabama’s turnovers. If we had taken a bigger lead in the first half, maybe they wouldn’t have played so well in the second half."

Harris had a game-high 16 points while Charity Ford scored 10, and Ricketts and Quistelle Williams seven each. Sarah Watkins led Arkansas with six rebounds and Ricketts had a team-high four assists.

Magee made 7-of-11 shots and led Alabama with 15 points and added a game-high six assists to go with nine rebounds. Jenkins had 14 points and a game-high 14 rebounds, and Russell scored 10 points.

Alabama shot 46 percent for the game (24-52), including 50 percent in the second half (15-30), and had a 45-34 rebounding advantage. Arkansas shot 30 percent (20-66) for the game.

Alabama had 28 turnovers, but only nine in the second half.

After getting off to a strong start with leads of 13-2 and 16-5, Arkansas led 26-24 at the break.

Arkansas shot 39 percent in the period while Alabama hit 41 percent of its shots, but the Razorbacks were 11-of-28 shooting while the Crimson Tide was 9-of-22.

Alabama also had a 17-15 rebounding advantage, and outscored Arkansas both at the free-throw line and on three-pointers, but the Crimson Tide had 19 turnovers while the Razorbacks had 15.

Arkansas scored 15 points off those turnovers and also had a 20-6 advantage on points in the lane.

Alabama scored just two points in the first eight-plus minutes of the game while turning the ball over 11 times.

Arkansas led 13-2 at the 11:39 mark. Over the next three minutes, Ericka Russell hit two three-pointers to help Alabama pull within 16-14. Arkansas took a four-point lead twice the rest of the way, but two Russell free throws pulled Alabama within two at the break.

Arkansas is on the road at LSU on Thursday for an 8 p.m. contest televised by FSN.

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