The Hawks of Maryland-Eastern Shore were delivered a beatdown of epic proportions inside Bud Walton Arena on Monday night, as the No. 19 Arkansas Razorbacks soared to a 109-35 victory.
Once freshman guard Boogie Fland hit the game's first bucket at the 19:44 mark, the Hoop Hogs never trailed and went on a scoring run of 28-0 in the first half. By halftime, behind guard Johnell Davis' 13 points, guard Karter Knox's 12 points and forward Zvonimir Ivisic's 10 points, Arkansas led 60-15.
According to HogStats, the 45-point advantage tied the Arkansas halftime record since at least 1945, as the Hogs led in 2009 against Alcorn State at half, 71-26.
"We respect every opponent," associate head coach Chin Coleman said after the game. "We don’t necessarily fear anybody, but we respect every opponent. We respected them. We understand how they played against Murray State. We understand how they played against ODU. We understand that in the Illinois game it was 10-10 for a while, and whatever the score was at half (35-15 Illinois).
"So it wasn’t like everybody has just gotten out on them. That team will win some games in their league. For us, it’s about our standard, and keeping our standard at one level and not dropping our standard."
Not only did the Razorbacks score at will, but they got what they wanted defensively as well. In the first 20 minutes of the game, Arkansas collected five steals, held the Hawks to 6-of-28 shooting and forced 11 turnovers. In comparison, head coach John Calipari's club had just two turnovers in the first half.
"Defensively, we’re one of the best teams in the country and we want to continue to hand our hats on how we are defensively," Coleman said. "And a lot of stuff that we do defensively, it doesn’t matter who we play, because it’s our scheme. It’s our schematics and it works. As long as we’re in the right spots and we’re doing what we teach, it’ll work against anyone."
An X post made by Cory Stewart perfectly described just how bad the Hawks performed to start the game. According to Stewart, if all free throws were worth three points, all two-pointers were worth five points and all three-pointers were worth 10 points, Maryland-Eastern Shore would've still trailed by 17 points at halftime.
In fact, had Arkansas not scored at all in the second half, it still would've won, 60-35.
The Razorbacks — who have struggled this season in closing out games with big leads — didn't have any problems doing so against the Hawks. Not only was the second half more of the same for Arkansas, but fans finally got to see end-of-bench players Casmir Chavis, Melo Sanchez, Ayden Kelley and Kareem Watkins make their season debuts as well.
"(Chavis is) one of our team’s favorites," Coleman said. "Our guys really like Cash. He’s the life of the party. He’s got a good spirit about him. So to see him go in the game and get a bucket, I’m sure you saw our bench erupted because he’s one of their favorite guys, he’s one of their guys and they really like Cash.
"I wish Ayden would had not smoked that layup. I mean, we work on layups every day. You get an open layup and he smoked it. But that would have been great for him to get an opportunity to get his name in the stat sheet, too."
By the game's end, Arkansas had shot 40-of-72 from the floor, 15-of-34 from three and 14-of-17 from the charity stripe. Leading the Hogs in scoring was Knox (21 points), while Fland racked up six assists, Adou Thiero made four steals and Davis hit four threes.
Arkansas' 74-point margin of victory is tied for third-largest in program history, with first place set at 82 points. The 15 made threes by the Razorbacks were the most in a game since 2022 against Georgia and Maryland-Eastern Shore's three total assists beat Arkansas' opponent record-low of four since 1993.
"Obviously the score got a little bit out of hand tonight and we went zone out of respect for them and the coach (Cleo Hill)," Coleman said. "We didn’t want to necessarily just run the score up. But we wanted to continue to work on us. It was an opportunity for us to get better, and I think that we did that."
Up next, Arkansas will travel to Kansas City on Thursday to face the Illinois Illini inside T-Mobile Center. That game will tip off at 3 p.m. CT and will be broadcast on CBS.
