Eric Musselman shares where Alabama game got away from Arkansas

No. 15 Arkansas had a chance at home late to take the lead after going down 12 points to No. 4 Alabama. The Razorbacks had clawed their way back but, in the end, Eric Musselman said there was too much of Brandon Miller late in the game to overcome.

Musselman highlighted the point where the star freshman stole Arkansas’ hope during his postgame press conference. He said that, after keeping Miller quiet in the first half, his late dagger threes closed the door on them.

“I thought Brandon Miller was phenomenal in the second half,” said Musselman. “I thought in the first half we did a great job of executing a defensive gameplan. We went under twice on him and he hit two big threes.”

Once Arkansas cut it to two, fellow Alabama freshman Noah Clowney hit a big three of his own. That pushed the Tide’s lead to five with 4:30 left. Still, the Razorbacks were within striking distance before Miller had his moment. After scoring zero in the first 20 minutes, though, he found his groove with eight points in the second half. He then hit a pair of cold-blooded threes that pushed his scoring output to 14 and Alabama’s lead back up to double-digits. Miller and the Tide then held on until the end to take an 84-69 win out of Fayetteville.

Musselman gives all the credit to Miller for carrying his team across the finish line. He did what top players are supposed to do which is deliver in a game’s biggest moments.

“I mean that’s what you need great players to do on your roster,” Musselman explained. “He stepped up when the game was in the balance.”

Miller has given plenty of top teams problems already and, unfortunately for Musselman’s team, Arkansas was no different. The Razorbacks will have to have a short memory now that they sit at 1-3 in SEC play. If they want to put this stretch behind them and get back into the conference race, getting wins in their upcoming road trips to Vanderbilt and Missouri will be paramount.