Johnell Davis’ Complete Performance -forces Arkansas Basketball past Texas

In different ways, Johnell Davis put his fingerprints all over Arkansa’s Basketball’s Road victory over Texas.

Davis scored a season hill 24 points when razorbacks (14-8, 3-6 sec) held a late rally and topped Longhorns 78-70 Saturday night. He hit four 3-Pointers and shot 7 of 15 from the field.

And most importantly, this was the third consecutive game that Davis scored at least 18 points. After a slow start to his Arkansa career, Davis rounds out in shape when his team needs him the most, and fights for the chance of a late run into the NCAA tournament.

“(Davis) has done good things. He has grown up,” John Calipari said. “I sent them all a text that basically talked about, you have to go through failure if you ever want to be successful. You have to go through these gates.”

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Davis certainly used a reasonable proportion of time within these gates. He should immediately be a dominant goal scorer for Arkansas, but the FAU transfer really did not get started until Boogie Feland’s injury forced Calipari to make Davis a central focus of the offense.

But it was only a small part of his influence against Texas.

First Davis shone on the defensive end. He had three of his four steals inside the opening 10 minutes, with all three takeaways leading to Arkansas baskets. Davis caused most of his destruction with off-ball pressure and by jumping in Texas-passing lanes.

Davis found his offensive groove when the game wore and he was a critical piece of Hogs’ decisive stretch.

Arkansas led 11 at the break, but Razorbacks came out of the dressing room and seized control of a 10-0 race. Davis made two 3-Pointers, scored eight points and helped an Adou Thiero Dunk as the pigs pushed their advantage to 45-24 with 16:40 back.

Of course, the pigs could not cross to the finish line. Texas chased violations and went on a furious demonstration in the second half and trimmed the deficit to eight points with 4:02 back.

About 40 seconds later, Davis Curling came of a screen and caught a pass from Karter Knox. He took two dribbles and with confidence with confidence a 3-pointer to restore the lead to double.

Again, Texas itched back, making it a five-point game within a minute. Davis joined the Free Castle Line and made two critical shots to give the pigs to a 71-64 lead and seal the victory.

According to Calipari, the entire team benefits from a longer leash. He does not want his players to think they are coming out of the game after missing two shots and that freedom has especially helped Davis.

The success is also to bring out some leadership qualities that were not present at the beginning of the year.

“Do you know what was amazing today? He’s on the field and talking with map as maps went, like ‘we need this watch to run. You are well, keep playing, not bad. ‘ Wow, “Calipari said.

The last statistics were 24 points, five rebounds, four steals and two assists to Davis. He drove Hogs to another straight road gain after the happy victory over Kentucky on Saturday night.

“We had to validate the last victory,” Calipari said. “Would you say? We had to validate it and come in here and we did.”

And if this is Davis, as Arkansas gets the rest of the season, there is no reason why the pigs cannot play in March Madness.

Jackson Fuller covers Arkansa’s football, basketball and baseball for the Southwest Times Record, part of the US Today Network. Well him at [email protected] or follow him @Jacksonfuller16 On x, formerly known as Twitter.

This article originally appeared on the Fort Smith Times Record: Johnell Davis continues hot form, lifting Arkansas Basketball over Texas