Game story: No. 20 Arkansas rips-and-runs early, holds off Little Rock late in 79-67 home win on Friday for Hogs’ third straight win

By Kevin McPherson

FAYETTEVILLE — No. 20 Arkansas has so far excelled in cashing live-ball turnovers into transition buckets, and the Razorbacks blasted off early in that regard on Friday before holding off several Little Rock runs en route to a 79-67 close-call win over their in-state Division 1 foe Trojans in a non-conference matchup at Bud Walton Arena.

It marked the Razorbacks’ third consecutive win in what was the team’s third of four consecutive home games.

Next up for Arkansas (4-1) is the team’s final home game in the month of November as unranked mid-major Maryland-Eastern Shore will invade BWA on Monday, Nov. 25 (7 p.m. CT, SEC Network Plus livestream).

The Razorbacks are 4-0 on the season at home, 0-1 in neutral-site games, and they’ve yet to play a true road game. Arkansas improved to 2-0 all-time against Little Rock (3-3), which dropped to 2-3 on its current six-game road swing.

Coming off a 91-72 win over Pacific on Monday, the Hogs blazed out to a 22-point lead, 39-17, on the strength of 10 steals in the first 20 minutes on Friday against Little Rock.

The Trojans battled back to close within a 7-point deficit midway through the second half and within 8 points, 74-66, with 2:14 to play, but the Hogs finished the game outscoring Little Rock 5-1 to survive their opponent’s comeback bid.

“Thank goodness it’s November, and again, you have a chance to put somebody away, and you mess around,” Arkansas head coach John Calipari said after the game. “So at half, instead of being up bigger and bigger, we’re up 18. So the first five minutes of the (second) half set the tone for the rest of the game. First five minutes. First play, what did we do? We gave them a layup under the basket. You know how we guarded in the first half. What just happened?

“So, we’ve got stuff that we’ll be able to work on, and let me say this: Because it became a close game, it ends up being good for us. Who’s making plays? Who do you have to get out of the game? Who do you have in the game? What do you try to do to score offense? We passed the ball and moved it and did so much good offensively in the first half, until the last three minutes. We had seven wide-open threes, missed all of those. Seven. They were wide open. There was no one guarding the guy. Just missed them. That happens, but they were the right shots and they were the right plays. Sometimes you make seven in-a-row, sometimes you miss seven in-a-row. What do you do from there? Even with that, we were still up 18. Even the finish was just okay, but here’s what happened… There was a will to win. I don’t care who it’s against. When a game gets like that, that stuff was on us, and Adou (Thiero) making that play on the offensive rebound, again, he’s standing out how he’s playing. He’s getting it done.”

Arkansas’ leading scorers on the season — 6-8 junior 3/4-combo forward Adou Thiero (game-high 23 points, team-high 8 rebounds, game-high 6 steals, game-high-matching 2 blocks, and 5 turnovers) and 6-3 freshman guard Boogie Fland (21 points, game-high 7 assists, 4 rebounds, 3 steals, and 4 turnovers) — once again provided most of the production for the Hogs.

The duo combined for 9 steals as they accounted for 60% of the Hogs’ eye-popping 15 total steals.

Thiero hit 7-of-9 field goals and 9-of-10 free throws for his efficient 23 points, and his combination of size, strength, explosive athleticism, and aggressive determination have made him arguably the most impactful hustle-play disruptor in college basketball. A driving baby-hook-off-the-glaas and-1, a steal leading to contested windmill dunk, and a high-degree-of-difficulty putback on a missed free throw were just three of many Thiero dazzle plays in the game.

“The wide layup (baby hook), I’ve been wanting to get one of those in game for a while in game. I had worked on that with TU, Tyler Ulis, worked on it a couple of times with him,” Thiero explained after being asked about some of his highlight-reel plays. “I told him I was going to get in a game. I saw my opportunity right there and just got it. As for everything else, the windmill, my teammates get mad at me whenever I don’t do a trick or something. I was like, you know what, I might as well do a trick this time. I didn’t know the dude actually kept running behind me. I just jumped man, I got it still so it don’t matter. It’s all good anyway.”

Fland made 6-of-11 field goals, including 3-of-5 from 3, and 6-of-7 free throws for his 21 points. He’s now 11-of-25 from 3 on the season (44.0%).

The Hoop Hogs came in ranked 8th nationally in KenPom.com’s defensive efficiency ratings, and the Hogs were stifling in the early stages with perimeter on-ball pressure, off-ball help, and interior defense against the Trojans.

But as was the case in each of their previous three home wins, Arkansas had second-half letdowns on both ends of the court in concert with the Trojans settling down on offense while employing a myriad of zone defenses that once again proved to be kryptonite for the Hogs’ offense.

The Razorbacks and Trojans each suffered 19 turnovers (each team was forcing 17 turnovers per game coming into Friday’s contesr), but as part of that Arkansas more than doubled up Little Rock in live-ball steals (15-7), which points to the Hogs committing unforced turnovers with most of that coming as Arkansas struggled to penetrate and exectue against the Trojans’ zone defense.

High-octane transition offense mostly off steals fueled a near-60% field goal shooting effort in the first half, but an error-filled second half resulted in 31.7% shooting as the Razorbacks finished 25-of-53 overall from the field (47.2%) including 7-of-24 from 3 (29.2%). After shooting only two free throws in the first 20 minutes, Arkansas overcame poor offensive execution by drawing fouls in the second half in finishing the game 22-of-27 from the foul line (81.5%).

Defensively, Arkansas held Little Rock to 22-of-59 from the field (37.3%), including 6-of-22 from 3 (27.3%). The Trojans came into the game top 30 in D1 in three-point shooting efficiency at better than 41% on the young season. Little Rock made 17-of-23 free throws (73.9%) against the Hogs.

Arkansas dominated fastbreak points (22-9), steals (15-7) l, and points-off-turnovers (28-17) while also winning points-in-the-paint (32-24), total rebounds (38-36), bench scoring (12-11), second-chance-points (12-11), and blocks (4-1). Little Rock won offensive rebounds (13-8) and assists (13-12).

Arkansas’ sophomore guard DJ Wagner and sophomore big man Zvonimir Ivisic chipped in 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Wagner made 3-of-6 from 3 as he has combined for 5-of-10 from distance in his last two outings after starting the season 0-of-6 through the first three games. He also contributed 5 rebounds, 3 steals, 1 assist, 3 turnovers, and a boxscore plus-10 in 38 minutes against Little Rock.

Ivisic was 3-of-5 from the field, including 1-of-3 from 3, and 3-of-4 free throws for his 10 points to go with 3 reboubds, 2 blocks, and 3 turnovers. Ivisic is now 10-of-17 from 3 on the season (58.8%).

Senior guard Nelly Davis, a preseason All SEC picj and on several preseason national player of the year award watch lists, continued his struggles as he had only 2 points (1-of-5 field goals, including 0-of-3 from 3), 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 2 turnovers.

Freshman wings Karter Knox and Billy Richmond both played off the bench as each scored 6 points. Richmond was 2-of-2 field goals and 2-of-2 free throws for his 6 points to go with 6 reboubds and 1 assist. Knox by far took his highest volume of shots, but he has been off target and that was the case on Friday as he finished 2-of-11 shooting, including 0-of-6 from 3, and 2-of-4 from the foul line for his 6 points to go with 4 rebounds, 1 assist, and 2 turnovers.

Arkansas senior big man Jonas Aidoo played sparingly off the bench (20 combined minutes) against Lipscomb, Baylor, and Troy to open the season after missing both of the team’s exhibition contests with an undisclosed injury, and he did not play against Pacific on Monday before also sitting out the Little Rock game. Junior forward Trevon Brazile (ankle) also sat out both the Pacific and Little Rock tilts.

Playing without former Razorback and first-team ALL Ohio Valley Conference guard KK Robinson (knee), Little Rock was led by former LSU wing Mwani Wilkinson (18 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals) and former Creighton wing Johnathan Lawson (15 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block). Guard Isaiah Lewus (13 points) and big man Ante Beljan (10 points) also scored in double figures for the Trojans.

“They’ve got a good team,” former Razorbacks star, former NBA head coach, and current Little Rock head coach Darrell Walker said after the game. “Do they have more talent than us? Absolutely. But I knew we could compete better. That first five or six minutes of the game we were a deer in headlights. We were terrified for no reason. We turned the ball over. Now, they got 19 turnovers. We turned the ball over 19 times and they got 28 points off of that.

“I told my team before the game, ‘We cannot have a lot of turnovers. If you do, this team is really good in the open court. You put them in half court you’re going to have a chance to get in the game. We got back in the game. We put them in half court, made them guard our stuff, played a 2-3 zone and slowed them down. But we keep turning the ball over, that team gets in the open court it’s really tough to defend.”

Calipari started Wagner, Fland, Davis, Thiero, and Ivisic against the Trojans.

Arkansas used 4 early steals to build an 11-0 advantage en route to taking a 39-17 lead late in the first half before settling on a 42-24 halftime lead.

Fland had 13 first-half points to lead Arkansas.

The Hogs shot 18-of-31 from the field (58.1%), including 4-of-14 from 3 (28.6%), and 2-of-2 from the free throw line in the opening 20 minutes. Defensively, Arkansas limited Little Rock to 8-of-27 overall from the field (29.6%), including 1-of-11 from 3 (9.1%). The Trojans hit 7-of-8 freebies (87.5%) in the first half.

The Razorbacks dominated points-off-turnovers (15-3), fastbreak points (13-0), points-in-the-paint (24-8), and steals (10-3).