Razorbacks overcome poor first half
FAYETTEVILLE — Neither Arkansas nor UT-Arlington shot well on Friday at Bud Walton Arena, but the Razorbacks heated up in the second half to pull away for a 78-60 victory.
Arkansas (4-1) shot 8-for-25 in the opening half to lead,
31-26, as the Mavericks (3-3) only connected on 8 of 28 shots. The Razorbacks were able to pull away even with leading scorer Daniel Gafford sitting the final 9:26 with four fouls.
Head coach Mike Anderson’s Hogs will next play on Saturday at home against Florida International (6-1).
Preseason All-Southeastern Conference sophomore center Gafford led Arkansas with 21 points, including a stunning career-best 9-for-10 on free throws. Junior forward Adrio Bailey and sophomore point guard Jalen Harris scored 14 points each, while freshman Isaiah Joe scored 10.
The game slogged through 59 fouls called in the game. The teams combined to shoot 73 free throws.
Gafford made all six of his free throws in the first half to keep the Hogs in front at the break. Arlington missed its first six shots and only led once at 1-0, but Arkansas never led by more than eight points during the first half because of its own shooting struggles.
Three dunks plus the free throws by Gafford gave him
12 of Arkansas’ 31 first-half points. He left the game in the second half with Arkansas up by nine points.
Arlington previously cut a 20-point deficit down to one point in a 78-64 loss at Indiana (5-1). The Razorbacks edged the Hoosiers, 73-72, a week ago in Fayetteville.
Bailey, freshman forward Reggie Chaney and sophomore forward Gabe Osabuohien did much to make up for Gafford’s absence in the final 9:26 and increase Arkansas’ lead. Chaney finished with eight rebounds and eight points, including a crowd-igniting dunk off of a mad scramble for a 51-39 lead with 12:10 left to play and Gafford still available.
“In some ways, they’re harder to guard without him,” said Arlington head coach Chris Ogden with a little laugh.
“I know that sounds weird, but they open up the lane for drives and stuff like that and they closed with a great run. But, obviously, he’s a lottery pick and a huge factor.”
“It shows I’m not the main target that everyone has to worry about anymore,” Gafford said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that come off that bench and produce big numbers.
“Not all eyes are going to be on me, but it shows I’m not the only person that can do everything. We’ve got other guys that can do it.”
Gafford said he shoots 100 free throws a day. His 90-percent performance at the charity stripe helped build the lead before his fourth foul.
“The mindset was stay engaged,” Chaney said. “Stay on the boards and be aggressive because we’re losing that inside presence with Daniel. Take up the slack and stay aggressive.”
Arkansas only made 2 of 16 attempted 3-pointers. Joe hit one in each half, the second putting Arkansas ahead, 61-49, with 6:38 on the clock.
Edric Daniels led the Mavericks with 19 points and Brian Warren scored 15.
Arkansas hit 34 of 46 free throws for 73.9 percent as a team. Arlington made 18 of 27 for 66.7 percent.
“The difference in the game was the free throw line,” Ogden said. “We fouled too much and they shot a lot more free throws than we did and we had four guys with three fouls in the first half. And Ed Dennis got his fourth foul on a bonehead play. We had the momentum and then we had to sit him a good number of minutes.”
Both coaches credited their defense in part for the poor first-half shooting but said both teams also just plain shot poorly.
“It wasn’t a great display of offense,” Anderson said. “That first half it was like they were still at my house for Thanksgiving, but we turned up the intensity and the guys off the bench gave us some great, great minutes.”