FAYETTEVILLE -- Oral Roberts University surpassed its per game average for turnovers with more than five minutes left in the first half against the Arkansas Razorbacks.
By then the Razorbacks were well on their way to a 104-69 victory over the Golden Eagles on Tuesday night in Walton Arena before an announced crowd of 9,459.
The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville forced Oral Roberts into 27 turnovers -- twice the Golden Eagles' average of 13.7 coming into the game.
Sophomore forward Chris Miller lost the ball with 5:04 left in the first half for the Golden Eagles' 14th turnover. They had 16 turnovers in the half, and in one stretch lost the ball on four consecutive possessions.
"It became a situation where I think they smelled blood in the water and they took advantage of the opportunity to create offense via the turnover," Golden Eagles Coach Paul Mills said. "They're trying to speed you up, and it's not anything that you can ever mimic in practice.
"It's not anything that you can prepare your guys for. You can show them film, but it looks a lot easier on film than it does in person."
Arkansas outscored Oral Roberts 42-9 in points off turnovers.
"That just gives us energy," Razorbacks freshman forward Daniel Gafford said of the turnover feeding frenzy. "That gives us energy to work on offense because what Coach says is our defense is our offense, pretty much."
Oral Roberts suffered the most turnovers by an Arkansas opponent since Texas-San Antonio had 28 in the Razorbacks' 104-71 victory on Jan. 14, 2014.
"To our guys' credit, they came out with great energy and it started on the defensive side of the ball," Razorbacks Coach Mike Anderson said. "We made a couple of shots early on and started to get into our full-court pressure defense, and it affected them."
Sophomore forward Emmanuel Nzekwesi led Oral Roberts (4-10) with 22 points, but he also had five turnovers. Six Golden Eagles had at least three turnovers.
"They only had two guards who could really handle the basketball, and that was our mindset to make those other guys handle it," Anderson said. "I just thought our quickness, making the other big guys ball-handlers, played right into what we wanted to do."
Senior guard Jaylen Barford led the Razorbacks (9-2) with 18 points and had 5 of their 14 steals.
"We were just picking up on defense, buying into the system, seeing it through Coach's eyes," Barford said. "Once we get our hand on the ball, I think we just come up with it."
Anderson said the Razorbacks had 43 deflections.
"I thought our defense was really disruptive," he said.
The Golden Eagles' previous high for turnovers was 24, but that was in a 50-minute game they won 74-66 in double overtime at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Oral Roberts' most turnovers in a regulation game had been 19 in a 90-71 loss at Tulsa.
The Razorbacks finished with nine turnovers, giving them a combined 29 in their past four games.
"Overall to me it was a great team performance," Anderson said. "But it was predicated on defense."
Arkansas sophomore guard C.J. Jones hit 5 of 8 three-pointers and scored 15 points off the bench.
Senior guards Anton Beard and Daryl Macon each scored 14 points for the Razorbacks. Beard also had 4 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 steals, and Macon had 3 assists, 3 rebounds and 1 steal.
Gafford had 12 points, a career-high 4 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 blocked shots. Freshman forward Darious Hall had 11 points, 3 assists and 2 steals.
Barford's three-pointer put the Razorbacks ahead 70-30 with 15:54 left.
Oral Roberts pulled within 72-43, and Anderson called a timeout with 11:11 left. The Golden Eagles didn't pull closer than 26 points the rest of the game.
"Coach Anderson was nice and took off the pressure," Mills said. "They could have beat us by 90 tonight."
Senior forward Trey Thompson scored on a rebound basket with 3.1 seconds left in the first half to put Arkansas ahead 52-23 at halftime.
The Razorbacks had two 11-0 runs in the decisive first half.
"I think Coach Anderson has done a tremendous job," Mills said. "He has a really good basketball team. Probably the best team that he's had in his time here."
Game sketch
RECORDS Arkansas 9-2; Oral Roberts 4-10 STARS Arkansas senior guards Jaylen Barford (18 points, 5 steals, 4 assists) and Daryl Macon (14 points, 3 assists) and Anton Beard (14 points, 4 assists), sophomore guard C.J. Jones (15 points) and freshman forward Daniel Gafford (12 points, 4 assists, 2 blocked shots)
TURNING POINT Arkansas used an 11-0 run to take a 30-12 lead with 9:04 left in the first half.
KEY STAT The Hogs outscored the Golden Eagles 42-9 in points off turnovers.
UP NEXT Arkansas plays California State-Bakersfield at 7 p.m. on Dec. 27 at Walton Arena in Fayetteville.
Sports on 12/20/2017