Hogs to Take on No. 13 Bulldogs
Sophomore Joe Serrano dives back to first during the first game of the doubleheader against New Orleans. The Hogs beat the Privateers 14-0 in seven innings in the first game and 3-0 in the second game. (Photo by Logan Webster)
The Razorback women’s basketball team is coming off a dominant win against Missouri Sunday and will be traveling to Georgia to take on the Bulldogs for the second time this season Thursday.
“We’re very positive and we know we need to win this,” sophomore Calli Berna said of the Georgia game. “We know our game plan and we’re going to be fine.”
“We want to build on the momentum from the Missouri game,” senior Sarah Watkins said. “We know we need to just keeping moving forward.”
The Razorbacks have already faced the Bulldogs once this season. Georgia was ranked No. 12 at the time and they came to Fayetteville and beat the Hogs 57-53 after Arkansas blew an 11-point first-half lead.
“If you go in with a halftime lead, you need to learn how to come out and finish the game,” Watkins said. “You can’t just play around and let them get the lead back. You just have to put it away.”
“It’s so hard knowing how close we were to beating that team,” Berna said. “They’re ranked pretty high and we know we can get this win, which makes us even more hungry to get it.”
Georgia is ranked at No. 13 and this will be the eighth ranked opponent the Razorbacks have faced this season. They have yet to beat a ranked team.
“We need to go out and beat a ranked team at this point,” head coach Tom Collen said. “We’ve battled close with most ranked teams and now we’re optimistic that we can go out on the road and do enough to get the win.”
There are only four games left in the regular season for the Razorbacks, and they know that NCAA Tournament hopes are dwindling. The Hogs are 5-7 in Southeastern Conference play and Collen said he thinks they need to be 8-8 in the conference when the season ends to make the tournament. No. 11 Tennessee is still left on Arkansas’ schedule as well.
“Georgia is playing for seeding right now and we’re fighting for our lives a little bit,” Collen said. “We need to get to 500 in the conference; we might have a fighting chance at 7-9. We just need to keep improving every single game.”
Arkansas has had many players step up and score points for them this season, so even when an opposing defense shuts one player down, there are others there to take their place. Freshman Dominique Wilson has scored in the double-digits in the last three consecutive games.
“It makes us really versatile,” Berna said of the team’s offensive diversity. “Some teams don’t have that option to have other players on the floor step up.”
“It’s nice that so many of them step up, but we really need three or four of them to all step up in the same game to get a road win,” Collen said.
The Georgia game is this Thursday at 6 p.m. in Athens, Ga., and the Razorbacks return to home action against No. 11 Tennessee Sunday at 1 p.m. at Bud Walton Arena.
