Arkansas ended a three-game conference skid at Alabama with an 82-78 win over the Crimson Tide on Saturday night.

Mason Jones and Jimmy Whitt combined for 56 of the Razorbacks’ points in a game that saw only five different Hogs in the scoring column.

The Razorbacks had to overcome a sluggish start to both halves to come away with their sixth consecutive win over Alabama. Down 12-0, Arkansas used several spurts to pull itself back into the game.

Alabama also created an eight-point lead early in the second half before the Razorbacks erased it and took the lead with a 16-7 run that included 14 points from Jones and Whitt. An 11-1 run in the final minutes gave Arkansas a 77-70 lead and represented the final run in a game that featured the two teams trading spurts all night.

Arkansas returns home Tuesday for a 6 p.m. tip against an Auburn team that topped Kentucky on Saturday to pull even with the Wildcats for second place in the SEC.

Bailey Out of Lineup

Arkansas was set to come out in a new lineup whether due to precaution with the status of Desi Sills, Jimmy Whitt and Isaiah Joe up in the air or just for a switch.

All three made the start in Tuscaloosa, Ala., but it was Adrio Bailey who came off the bench for the first time this season as Arkansas went with a four-guard lineup. Chaney made his third consecutive start and scored eight points to go along with 11 boards. Chaney is averaging 5.7 points and 6.3 rebounds in the starting lineup.

Chaney's night ended when he picked up his fifth foul on a three-point shooter inside 30 seconds to go. Bailey played a season-low six minutes, his lowest in a regular-season game since playing two against Texas A&M in February 2018.

More Early Timeouts

Head coach Eric Musselman had to use an early timeout in each of the last two games and was likely hoping to pocket those timeouts on Saturday. Unfortunately for him, Arkansas got off to another slow start and Musselman had to burn not only one timeout, but had to use two before the first media timeout.

The first came less than two minutes into the game when the Tide jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead. The next came just a minute after that, when Alabama doubled its lead while the Hogs continued to search for a basket.

It wasn’t until the 16:34 mark when Desi Sills put the Hogs on the board for the first time. Arkansas had started the game 0-7 from the floor compared to Alabama’s 4-4 start.

There Goes That Man

Jones played a key role in pulling Arkansas back into the game in the first half. The guard scored 17 points in 18 first-half minutes on 6 of 9 shooting.

With just under 10 minutes to play in the first, Jones hit a three to cap a 9-0 Razorback run to tie the game at 18. He hit another with six seconds left in the half to keep Arkansas within three at the break.

It wasn’t all good for Jones, though, who uncharacteristically struggled at the charity stripe. Jones, one of the SEC’s top free throw shooters, was just 6 of 13 at the free throw line. He came into the game shooting 87.0 percent.

Jones was 3 of 4 at the line during the final minute of the game, however, which was enough to give him 30 points on the night.

After scoring 34 against South Carolina, the junior is the first Razorback since Jannero Pargo in January 2002 to drop at least 30 points in back-to-back games. Pargo scored 35 against Florida and 33 against Alabama, both top-10 teams at the time.

Another Big Game for Whitt

Nobody in the league is playing more minutes than Whitt. Despite battling an injury that sidelined him for Thursday's practice, Whitt got 39 minutes of action against Alabama along with Sills.

It was the seventh time this season that Whitt played at least 39 minutes. Whitt has played in 95 percent of available minutes since conference play began, highest in the SEC.



In this long-winded performance, Whitt poured in 26 points for his seventh 20-point game of the season. The senior was 11 of 19 from the field, shot 4 of 4 from the free throw line and had four steals.

Whitt scored or assisted on nine of the Hogs final 16 points of the game.

Cold Joe

Joe has been limited in practice and in recent games as he recovers from a knee injury. The impact of the injury has shown in the box score, as his shooting struggles continued on the road.

For the first time in his career at Arkansas, Joe was held scoreless after an 0-of-3 shooting performance in 21 minutes against the Tide. His 7.0 percent usage rate was well shy of his 23.3 percent season average.

Joe is shooting just 25.9 percent from the floor since the Vanderbilt game and has hit just 13 of the 47 three-pointers during that stretch.