One of the games of the year in college basketball needed not one, but two extra periods to decide things on Wednesday night, as No. 25 Alabama basketball survived No. 20 Arkansas 117-115 in a double overtime thriller.

Despite a sensational game, Arkansas guard Darius Acuff Jr. couldn't get his final shot to fall to force a third overtime period, and Malique Ewin missed a dunk as the buzzer went off and the crowd in Tuscaloosa went into a frenzy.

Acuff carried a shorthanded Arkansas squad all night with 49 points on 16-for-27 shooting, playing all 50 minutes and never coming out of the game. Meleek Thomas added 24 before fouling out after 37 minutes.

On the Alabama side, star guard Labaron Philon Jr. led the way with 35 points and big man Aiden Sherrell added 26 and 13 rebounds.

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Alabama will feel like it had chances to close this game out in regulation after a nuclear second half on the offensive end, but Acuff continued his heater with a clutch 3-pointer in the final seconds of the second half to tie the game. Philon had a look to win it after 40 minutes, but just missed.

In overtime, foul trouble and lack of depth caught up to Arkansas. John Calipari came to Tuscaloosa with only seven rotation players after the injury to Karter Knox and had already lost Thomas and Nick Pringle due to fouls, but he eventually lost both DJ Wagner and Billy Richmond III to fouls as well. That forced the Razorbacks to play a two players, Elmir Dzafic and Jaden Karuletwa, who had combined to play just 35 minutes all season.

On the other side, Alabama was composed and played through Philon, with some key buckets from Sherrell and Houston Mallette from beyond the arc, to get the win. This victory gets Nate Oats' squad to 19-7 on the season and keeps the Tide in the conference title race at 9-4, two games back of Florida in the loss column.

Arkansas falls back into the pack of four-loss SEC teams with the loss and could fall out of the top 25. However, Calipari and company will take confidence from this game and believe that they can beat anybody when Acuff and the rest of the Razorbacks are on the floor.