Freshmen pace balanced Arkansas women, 75- 55

FAYETTEVILLE – Freshman Kelsey Brooks led four Razorbacks in double- digit scoring, and Arkansas rolled a 75- 55 Southeastern Conference over Alabama Thursday night at Bud Walton Arena.

Brooks scored a career- high 20 points, going 7 for 11 from the floor, including 3 for 4 from three- point range. Fellow freshmen Jessica Jackson and McKenzie Adams added 15 points and 11 points, respectively, and Jhasmin Bowen 10.

Arkansas ( 17- 8, 4- 8 SEC) shot 48.1 percent, its best in conference play this year. The 20- point margin of victory was the Razorbacks’ largest since beating Ole Miss by 41 points on March 3, 2013.

The Razorbacks jumped out to a 17- 6 lead by the 11: 21 mark of the first half, shooting 55 percent from the field and going 3 for 3 from three- point range. They extended their lead to 2411 with less than eight minutes to go in the half.

Arkansas opened the second half with an 8- 0 run for a 45- 29 lead.

“It’s always nice when you can run out to a 20- point lead and relax a little bit and play other players,” Arkansas Coach Tom Collen said. “The key was really the way we came out of the locker room and got hot from the beginning of the second half. We put the game away early right there and probably relaxed a little bit. We’ve been in so many close games and the last game we were on the opposite end of this. It was good for our players and they needed to get their confidence back.”

Alabama finished shooting 34 percent. The Razorbacks forced 25 turnovers while allowing just 18 field goals.