Aggies find Hogs difficult to guard

Daryl Macon of Arkansas makes a basket as Admon Gilder of Texas A&M guards in the second half Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018, during the game at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville.
Daryl Macon of Arkansas makes a basket as Admon Gilder of Texas A&M guards in the second half Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018, during the game at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- The Arkansas Razorbacks put up the highest scoring total No. 21 Texas A&M has allowed this season as they beat the Aggies 94-75 on Saturday in Walton Arena.

It was only the fourth time Texas A&M yielded 80 or more points, with the previous high by an opponent coming in the Aggies' 98-87 victory over Penn State.

"There's not many teams that are going to come in here and beat Arkansas when they shoot the ball like they did today," Texas A&M Coach Billy Kennedy said. "I thought they shot it extremely well, made some tough shots."

The Razorbacks hit 35 of 71 shots (49.3 percent), including 10 of 23 three-pointers. Before missing their final four shots, they were at 52.2 percent.

Freshman forward Daniel Gafford hit 7 of 8 shots and finished with 18 points for the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

"We really had a hard time guarding them in the beginning of the second half," Kennedy said. "Which I thought was a big key."

The Razorbacks opened the second half by hitting 10 of 14 shots to push their lead to 73-57.

"Just staying aggressive and playing our game," said senior guard Jaylen Barford, who led Arkansas with 21 points. "Moving without the ball, moving with the ball. Just getting each other open and making plays for each other."

The Razorbacks (19-8, 8-6 SEC) won their fourth consecutive game and moved into a third-place tie in the conference standings with Alabama, Florida and Missouri. Those four are behind Auburn (11-3) and Tennessee (9-5).

"I think we're playing better," Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson said. "This time of year, our teams tend to really start putting all of the pieces together."

The Aggies beat the Razorbacks 80-66 in Reed Arena on Jan. 30 in the teams' first meeting this season.

"We scored 66 points down there, so that tells you their defense is pretty good," Anderson said. "Today, we made shots."

Guard Daryl Macon, one of six seniors for the Razorbacks, scored 20 points and hit 7 of 12 shots after being held to a season-low four points on 1-of-6 shooting at Ole Miss on Tuesday night.

ADVERTISEMENT

More headlines

"He's a senior, and this is a senior-led team," Kennedy said. "They played like seniors."

Arkansas sophomore guard C.J. Jones hit 5 of 7 shots and scored 13 points off the bench. It was Jones' highest-scoring game since he had 15 points against California State University, Bakersfield on Dec. 27.

"I don't think he had too many wide-open looks," Kennedy said. "I think he made some tough shots that good teams make."

As well as the Razorbacks shot, they might have rebounded even better considering the Aggies' size of 6-10 Robert Williams, 6-10 Tyler Davis and 6-9 D.J. Hogg in the starting lineup.

Texas A&M came into the game No. 1 in the SEC and eighth nationally in rebounding margin with a plus-7.5 average. Arkansas was No. 13 in the SEC and 245th nationally with a minus-1.1 rebounding margin, but the Razorbacks outrebounded the Aggies 45-33.

It was a reversal of the teams' first game in which Texas A&M had a 45-30 rebounding advantage.

Arkansas became the fourth team to outrebound the Aggies, and the Razorbacks' plus-12 margin was the most by a Texas A&M opponent, surpassing Tennessee's plus-9.

Williams had a game-high 14 rebounds and Davis seven, but the Razorbacks overcame that by committee. Ten Razorbacks had at least one rebound and seven had three or more rebounds, led by freshman forward Darious Hall with seven.

"They're one of the better rebounding teams in the country with all that size, but somehow we found the energy," Anderson said. "We found the players that were really engaged and going out and getting those rebounds.

"I thought our defense was good, but the ending part of defense is rebounding the basketball and we did a good job with that."

Arkansas had 19 offensive rebounds on 36 missed shots -- a 52.8 percent rate -- and 8 team rebounds.

"That means we got loose balls," Anderson said. "That means we were really getting after it. We were giving second, third and fourth and fifth effort.

"

Sports on 02/19/2018

Upcoming Events