FAYETTEVILLE -- Vanderbilt's men's basketball team made some history on Tuesday night at Walton Arena at the expense of the University of Arkansas.
The Commodores beat the Razorbacks 85-82 to mark two firsts.
It was the first time Vanderbilt beat Arkansas in three consecutive games and the first time the Commodores won back-to-back games at Walton Arena.
Vanderbilt (8-21, 3-12 SEC) broke a three-game losing streak and prevented Arkansas (14-14, 5-10) from winning a third consecutive conference game for the first time this season.
Senior guard Khalif Battle scored 36 points to lead Arkansas after scoring 42 last Saturday against Missouri.
Battle hit 9 of 17 shots, including 4 of 10 three-pointers, and 14 of 17 free throws in 39 minutes. He had 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals, but also 6 of the Razorbacks' 13 turnovers.
Vanderbilt senior guards Ezra Manjon and Tyrin Lawrence combined for 43 points.
Manjon had 22 points and hit 8 of 16 shots, including his only three-point attempt, and 5 of 7 free throws. Lawrence hit 5 of 12 shots, 1 of 2 three-pointers, and 10 of 14 free throws to finish with 21 points.
"I think ... we've got to have more juice," Battle said, struggling to find the words to describe what happened to the Razorbacks in the loss. "I don't know.
"We've got to rally together and we still got the conference tournament. We still got games ahead of us.
"This one is tough, but there's so many things everybody could have done better, especially including myself. I know I could have done way more.
"That's the worst part about it. You can never get the time back that's already gone. Now we've just got to focus on the next task and that's hard, but [it's] basketball."
Arkansas trailed 66-51, but pulled within 78-75 with 2:14 left after back-to-back three-point baskets by Trevon Brazile and El Ellis.
Manjon's layup pushed Vanderbilt's lead to 80-75 with 1:46 left.
Battle hit two free throws with 48 seconds left to make it 80-77.
Lawrence missed two free throws, but 6-8 Vanderbilt sophomore forward Ven-Allen Lubin got the rebound and scored as he was fouled. He hit the free throw for an 83-77 Commodores lead with 22.9 seconds left.
"We've just got to come up with the rebound and we didn't," Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman said. "Lubin kind of snuck in between J.D. [Jeremiah Davenport] and El.
"We just watched it. I don't know if there was any contact once he got the ball. Because I watched it before I came in [for the postgame news conference]. But it got called and turned into a three-point play."
Lubin finished with 19 points, 12 rebounds and 2 blocked shots.
"Obviously we had some difficulty late with the free throw situation, but there was no play bigger than what Ven had with the rebound and putback," Commodores Coach Jerry Stackhouse said on Vanderbilt's postgame radio show. "That three-point play gave us a cushion. We needed every bit of that, too."
Arkansas junior guard Tramon adv made two free throws, then Ellis stole the ball and passed to Battle, who made a three-pointer to cut the Vanderbilt lead to 83-82 with five seconds left.
Davenport fouled Manjon, who hit two free throws to give the Commodores an 85-82 advantage with 3.5 seconds remaining.
After an Arkansas timeout, Mark missed a three-point attempt from about 30 feet at the buzzer.
Stackhouse said the Commodores did a good job defensively of making sure Battle didn't get the last shot.
"They got a decent look, but it's not the one they wanted at the end," Stackhouse said. "I know they were trying to get it to Battle."
Ellis, a senior guard, scored 19 points for the Razorbacks and Mark added 15.
Brazile, a sophomore forward playing his second game since missing seven games because of knee soreness, had 7 points, 6 rebounds and 1 blocked shot in 17 minutes off the bench before fouling out.
Vanderbilt's three-game winning streak against Arkansas includes the Commodores taking a 75-74 victory at Walton Arena in 2022 and beating the Razorbacks 97-84 at Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville, Tenn., last season.
On Tuesday, the Commodores took a 35-31 halftime lead after the Razorbacks shot 1 of 17 from the field in the last 11:54 of the half after Vanderbilt switched from a man-to-man to zone defense.
"Yeah, 1 of 17 is tough," Battle said. "I think that's the game right there. I mean, that's tough."
Arkansas shot 40.4% (23 of 57) for the game, including 10 of 30 on three-pointers, and hit 26 of 31 free throws.
Vanderbilt shot a season-high 50.9% from the field (29 of 57) and hit 23 of 32 free throws.
The Commodores came into the game shooting 39.0% from the field for the season.
"Disappointed in our defense, for sure," Musselman said. "In both halves.
"We did play hard down 15 .... whatever it was, and gave ourselves an opportunity to try to put the game into overtime.
"Give Vanderbilt credit. They played extremely hard for 40 minutes."
The Razorbacks started the game 7 of 10 from the field, capped by Davenport's three-point basket that gave them a 20-10 lead with 12:44 left in the first half.
Then the game shifted in Vanderbilt's favor as the Razorbacks went icy cold from the field.
The Commodores took their first lead, 29-27 with 3:46 left in the half on two free throws by JaQualon Roberts.
Vanderbilt stayed ahead the rest of the game.
Three technical fouls -- one each on Battle, Arkansas guard Davonte Davis and Lubin -- with 13:23 left in the first half when the players exchanged heated words after Battle was fouled on a driving attempt.
Manjon hit 1 of 2 of the free throws resulting from the technical to cut Arkansas' lead to 15-10.
Vanderbilt won its first road game of the season after being 0-8 coming into the game.
"Never a doubt, never a doubt, right?" Stackhouse said with a laugh on the postgame radio show of Vanderbilt hanging on after nearly blowing a 15-point lead. "We did make some big plays, man.
"Arkansas made some big plays down the stretch, made some big shots.
"But we just kept grinding."
Arkansas 6-10 senior Makhi Mitchell, who averaged 14 points the previous eight games, was scoreless on 0-of-3 shooting as the Razorbacks struggled to get him the ball against the zone.
Arkansas dropped to 39-15 all-time against the Commodores, including 16-5 at home.
Arkansas is 28-14 against Vanderbilt in SEC games.
Arkansas plays No. 16 Kentucky at 12:30 p.m. Central on Saturday at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky. CBS will televise the game.
Kentucky beat Arkansas 63-57 on Jan. 27 at Walton Arena.