Welsh's defense carries Arkansas
Last updated Tuesday, January 6, 2009 11:33 PM CST in Columns
By Harry King
THE MORNING NEWS
FAYETTEVILLE -- To appreciate what Stefan Welsh did against Texas, soak up the line produced by the most prolific 3-point shooter in Longhorn history.
From the start, Welsh did a job on A.J. Abrams. The UT senior, who had made 324 3s prior to Tuesday night, was so frustrated that when he lost his dribble late in the half, he faked a knock-down foul. The official was not fooled.
There is a direct correlation between Abrams being unproductive and the Longhorns coming up short. In a loss to Notre Dame, he was 8-of-27 from the floor, including 5-of-17 on 3s. In a loss to Michigan State, he was 3-of-10 and 0-of-4. In the 67-61 loss to Arkansas, he was 3-of-16 and 1-of-8, although he can be forgiven for missing three wild ones at the end.
A 45 percent shooter from 3-point range, he is 38-of-75 in the Longhorns' 11 victories.
Abrams took the blame for the loss, but never mentioned Welsh. He said he had been targeted by other teams. "They played attached and made it hard for me to cut," Abrams said. "The shots that I did take, I've got to knock those down."
Beating Texas at anything is particularly delicious for longtime Arkansas fans and the victory is a nice cherry on top of handing Oklahoma its first loss a week earlier. The thing is that the Mississippi State game on Saturday is more important than either W over two of the best in the Big 12.
If the Razorbacks fail to do well in the Southeastern Conference, they will never have the opportunity to cash the chits they earned against the Longhorns and the Sooners.
Welsh started off right with Abrams and never slacked off, even when the ball was not in play. Like that moment when he followed Abrams from one side of the court to the other when the only action was Courtney Fortson's free throw preparation. Moments later, he was face to face with Abrams, 30 feet from the basket and oblivious to a UT dunk.
Abrams scurried all the way down the baseline before he finally touched the ball and, even then, possession only lasted a second or two. More than six minutes elapsed before Abrams took his first shot. He missed that one and the other seven he attempted in the first half. Most were short.
Welsh took a sabbatical from defense to score 20 points, including a 3 that broke a tie at 57. Standing in front of the Arkansas bench, Welsh threw the ball in to Michael Washington who tossed it back. Texas failed to react and Welsh made the Longhorns pay. At the other end, Dexter Pittman lost the ball out of bounds with some help from Washington. Courtney Fortson's stop-and-go layup upped the lead to five.
Welsh lost Abrams for a moment and he drove for 62-59. With the lead down to one, Washington received the ball 12 feet from the basket and blew past Damion James for a dunk. Washington's three-point play was worth a 65-61 lead with 22 seconds and earned a bear hug from Michael Sanchez.
The fact that Arkansas won despite a subpar first-half performance by Fortson is encouraging. During those 20 minutes, he had one assist and five turnovers. The first two times he touched the ball, he stepped out of bounds and threw a too-wide pass to Rotnei Clarke.
Fortson did finish with 13 points.
The best thing about the first half is that it was hotly contested, laden with fouls and poor shooting. Between the two teams, there were 19 fouls and 48 missed shots.
Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media's Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com.
About this columnist
The dean of Arkansas sports writers, Harry King updates his column five days per week with the latest on the Razorbacks. A 35-year veteran of The Associated Press, King joined the Arkansas News Bureau in May of 2002. He's covered the Razorbacks since the Arkansas-Texas game dubbed the Big Shootout in 1969.
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