FAYETTEVILLE, Ark — Tramon Mark scored a career-high 35 points and his game-winner with 1.1 seconds helped put Arkansas into the SEC win column in frenetic fashion as the Razorbacks beat Texas A&M 78-77 on Tuesday night.
Mark alone made 22 trips to the foul line and made 17 shots. Out of a timeout, Mark took the inbound and dribbled left before sinking his runner. The Aggies failed to get the ball in clean and it bounced harmlessly out of bounds to end it.
The Razorbacks (10-7, 1-3) needed Mark's effort to overcome a career high 41-point effort by Texas A&M's Wade Taylor IV, who made 13 baskets on the night with five of them mostly coming in acrobatic fashion from behind the 3-point arc. He buried a lunging 3 off a screen with 7.6 seconds left to give Texas A&M its only lead of the game at 77-76. Taylor attempted 32 shots (40.6%), a record number of attempts against Arkansas in Razorback history.
El Ellis added 15 points for the Razorbacks.
Andersson Garcia made all five his shot attempts and scored 10 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for Texas A&M (10-7, 1-3).
The teams combined to make 44 of 125-shot attempts (35.2%). The Aggies had 74 attempts.
Arkansas posted a pair of 20-point leads in the first half.
The Razorbacks built a 17-3 lead within the first 8 minutes, and with 8:01 before halftime Jeremiah Davenport made a 3-pointer and extended the Razorbacks' lead to 30-10. But Taylor sank two foul shots, followed with a jump shot and Texas A&M began the slow climb back.
Ellis' layup with 6:07 before the break pushed Arkansas' lead to 34-14 before the Aggies rallied to outscore Arkansas 18-12 to trail 46-32 to set the stage for the second half rally.
Texas A&M faces LSU on the road Saturday. Arkansas hosts South Carolina on Saturday.
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