In a variety of ways, Johnell Davis put his fingerprints all over Arkansas basketball’s road win over Texas.
Davis scored a season-high 24 points as the Razorbacks (14-8, 3-6 SEC) held off a late rally and topped the 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 Davis scored at least 18 points. After a sluggish start to his Arkansas career, Davis is rounding into form when his team needs him most, fighting for the chance at a late run into the NCAA tournament.
“(Davis) has done great stuff. He’s grown up,” John Calipari said. “I sent them all a text that basically talked about, you have to go through failure if you’re ever going to have success. You have to walk through those gates.”
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Davis certainly spent a fair share of time within those gates. He was supposed to be a dominant scorer for Arkansas right away, but the FAU transfer really didn’t get going until Boogie Fland’s injury forced Calipari to make Davis a central focus of the offense.
But that was only a small part of his impact against Texas.
At first, Davis shined 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 havoc with off-ball pressure and by jumping the Texas passing lanes.
Davis found his offensive groove as the game wore on, and he was a critical piece of the Hogs’ decisive stretch.
Arkansas led by 11 at halftime, but the Razorbacks came out of the locker room and seized control with a 10-0 run. Davis made two 3-pointers, scored eight points and assisted an Adou Thiero dunk as the Hogs pushed their advantage to 45-24 with 16:40 remaining.
Of course, the Hogs could not cruise to the finish line. Texas hunted fouls and went on a furious rally in the second half and trimmed the deficit to eight points with 4:02 remaining.
About 40 seconds later, Davis came curling off a screen and caught a pass from Karter Knox. He took two dribbles and confidently drained a 3-pointer to restore the lead to double figures.
Again, Texas clawed back, making it a five-point game inside a minute. Davis stepped to the free-throw line and made two critical shots to give the Hogs a 71-64 lead and seal the victory.
According to Calipari, the entire team is benefitting from a longer leash. He doesn’t want his players thinking their coming out of the game after missing two shots, and that freedom has especially helped Davis.
The success is also bringing out some leadership qualities that weren’t present at the beginning of the year.
“You know what was great today? He’s on the court talking to Karter when Karter fouled, like, ‘We need this clock to run. You’re fine, keep playing, don’t foul.’ Wow,” Calipari said.
The final stats were 24 points, five rebounds, four steals and two assists for Davis. He powered the Hogs to a second straight road win after the gratifying victory over Kentucky on Saturday night.
“We had to validate that last win,” Calipari said. “Would you say? We had to validate it, and come in here, and we did.”
And if this is the Davis that Arkansas gets for the rest of the season, there’s no reason why the Hogs can’t play their way into March Madness.
Jackson Fuller covers Arkansas football, basketball and baseball for the Southwest Times Record, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at jfuller@gannett.com or follow him @jacksonfuller16 on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Johnell Davis continues hot form, lifts Arkansas basketball over Texas
