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Arkansas Holds on to Defeat Vanderbilt 70-62 1/24/2004
Arkansas Holds on to Defeat Vanderbilt 70-62 FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Freshman guard Ronnie Brewer scored a season-high 21 points and Jonathon Modica matched that to help Arkansas to a 70-62 victory over No. 22 Vanderbilt, which lost its third straight Southeastern Conference road game. Junior Michael Jones tied a career high with 18 points and had seven rebounds in his first start of the season for the Razorbacks (10-7, 2-4). Matt Freije had 19 points and seven rebounds for Vanderbilt (13-3, 2-3), which slipped to 1-3 since opening the season with 12 straight wins. The Commodores lost at Kentucky and Tennessee and have been off a week since beating then-No. 15 Florida last Saturday. After Brewer’s one-handed dunk gave Arkansas a 37-36 lead with 13:04 remaining, the teams traded the lead eight times over the next 8 minutes. A 3-pointer by Modica gave the Razorbacks a 61-56 lead with 2:43 remaining and that kicked off a 12-6 run to the end the game. Modica added another basket after missing the front end of a 1-and-1, grabbing two offensive rebounds, and Jones went 6-for-6 from the free throw line. The run gave Arkansas its first win over a ranked opponent this season and its first since beating No. 20 Mississippi State, 53-51, last March 1. The 10 wins surpasses the total coach Stan Heath had in his first season at Arkansas. The week off didn’t slow Freije, the SEC’s preseason player of the year, who broke out of a six-game slump in the Florida game with 23 points. But the Commodores only shot 37.7 percent from the field and Arkansas turned 17 turnovers into 18 points. Mario Moore of Vanderbilt scored all 17 of his points after halftime. |
