Game story: Arkansas crushes North Carolina A&T, 95-67, on Saturday at Bud Walton Arena for Hogs’ fifth straight win

By Kevin McPherson

Arkansas remained perfect in December and unbeaten at home by virtue of the Razorbacks’ dominant 95-67 victory over North Carolina A&T on Saturday at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville.

Arkansas (10-2, NCAA NET No. 48) has won five consecutive games — ALL coming in December without a blemish, and the winning streak now includes two wins at BWA — as part of a 9-wins-in-its-last-10-contests stretch. The last time the Razorbacks went unbeaten in the month of December was during the covid-shortened 2020-21 campaign.

Playing without senior starting guard Nelly Davis (wrist soreness), Head Hog John Calipari focused his lineup rotations around having at least two big men, sometimes three, on the court at the same time. It paid off as the quartet of senior starting big man Jonas Aidoo (double-double of 17 points, 11 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 assists, 1 steal); junior starting 3/4-combo forward Adou Thiero (14 points, 4 rebounds, and 1 block); junior reserve forward Trevon Brazile (11 points, 9 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 3 assists), and sophomore reserve center Zvonimir Ivisic (8 points, 3 rebounds, and 1 assist) combined for their most productive game colletcively to date.

Aidoo was not the only Hog with a double-double as freshman guard Boogie Fland posted his first career double-double with 12 points, a career-high 11 assists, 3 rebounds, and 1 steal. Arkansas had a total of seven players score in double figures — the aformentioned Aidoo, Brazile, Thiero, and Fland — plus freshman starting wing Karter Knox (11 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 block); sophomore starting guard DJ Wagner (10 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists); and freshman reserve wing Billy Richmond III (10 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block).

Following its 82-57 lopsided win over in-state Division 1 foe UCA a week ago, Arkansas enjoyed another smooth ride against unranked mid-major NCA&T on Saturday as the Hogs built up a 37-point lead in the second half while dominating the Aggies in both halves.

For the game, Arkansas dished out an impressive 26 assists while shooting 37-of-74 from the field (50.0%), including 6-of-24 from 3 (25.0%), and 15-of-19 from the free throw line (78.9%). Defensively, Arkansas limited NCA&T to 27-of-75 overall from the field (36.0%), including 4-of-22 from 3 (18.2%). The Aggies hit 9-of-17 freebies (52.9%).

Arkansas won rebounds (47-41), second-chance-points (14-12), turnovers (8-6), points-off-turnovers (12-6), points-in-the-paint (52-40), bench scoring (31-19), blocks (9-1), and assists (26-7). NCA&T won offensive rebounds (17-14), fastbreak scoring (18-11), and steals (5-4).

“Well, folks, that’s a hard game to play,” Calipari said following his team’s convincing win. “Game before Christmas, they’re all ready to go. Coaches are ready to go, everybody’s ready to go, and you’ve got to play a team that has really good guards and they could go crazy on you. I thought the first half we did some good things. We had a couple let downs, but it’s hard being up 25 or 30 and playing, just so you know. Just hard, and especially when you’re like, ‘Keep running clock, we’re going home.’ I mean this, not only has this been a grind for these kids to this point, but I took this— we started two-a-days, and so I was going after them.

“Yesterday, we had Christmas at my house, had a meal, had gifts for each of the guys and and now we’re just making sure that they’re going to be able to get back here on time the 26th because we’ve got a hard game the 30th, and then we start the truly grind of what this league is going to be and start shortly thereafter.”

The Hogs improved to 8-0 at home on the season (includes 7-0 at BWA and the aforementioned win over UCA at Simmons Bank Arena in North Little Rock in their previous outing on Dec. 14). They’re 2-2 away from home (includes a 1-2 mark in neutral-site tilts and 1-0 in true road games).

The win over NCA&T (3-10, NCAA NET No. 328) moves the Razorbacks to 4-0 in the all-time series between the two programs. The first of those wins came in the first round of the ’93-94 NCAA Tournament that culminated with the Hoop Hogs’ first and only national championship in basketball.

Arkansas is 1-2 in Quad-1 games, 0-0 in Q2, 3-0 in Q3, and now 6-0 in Q4.

Next up for the Razorbacks is the last of 13 non-conference games — mid-major Oakland on Dec. 30 at BWA — before the start of SEC play in early January.

Calipari was uncertain when asked about the possibility of Davis returning in time for the Oakland tilt.

“I hope so, but we’ll have to see,” he said. “Everybody else is dinged up a little bit. You know what I’m saying there, but there’s no…   Nelly’s wrist, let’s step off the gas here. Let’s see if we can get this thing feeling better. We’ll go from there.”

Marion native Ryan Forrest led the Aggies with 19 points while Fayettville native Landon Glasper contributed 16 points. Guard Jordan Martin, the son of Arkansas assistant coach Chuck Martin, played one minute in the game.

Calipari started Aidoo, Thiero, Wagner, Fland, and Knox against NCA&T.

Brazile had 11 points while Aidoo (9 points, 7 rebounds, 3 blocks), Knox (9 points), and Richmond (9 points and 4 rebounds) chipped in as the next top producers to lead the Razorbacks to a 54-31 halftime advantage.

The Hogs shot 21-of-40 from the field (52.5%), including 3-of-12 from 3 (25.0%), and 9-of-10 from the free throw line (90.0%)in the opening half. Defensively, Arkansas limited NCA&T to 11-of-31 overall from the field (35.5%), including 3-of-11 from 3 (27.3%) in the first half. The Aggies hit 6-of-13 freebies (46.2%) in the first half.

Arkansas won rebounds (24-17, including 7-6 on the offensive glass), second-chance-points (12-4), turnovers (6-1), points-off-turnovers (10-2), points-in-the-paint (32-14), bench scoring (22-8), fastbreak scoring (9-4) in the first half, steals (3-1), blocks (4-1), and assists (15-2) in the first half.