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Arkansas used a big run right out of halftime and a late scoring outburst from Jaylen Barford to rout the Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners by 27 points, 95-68, Wednesday night in Bud Walton Arena.
Arkansas (10-2) led most of the way before CSUB (7-8) tied the game at 38-38 with 2:11 remaining in the first half. But the Razorbacks finally put it all together and went on an 18-2 run over the next 6 minutes and 22 seconds into the second half to take a 56-40 lead with 15:49 to play in the game. Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said he felt fatigue became a factor in the second half.
“The shots we had in the second half, we had the same shots in the first half. We just didn’t knock them down,” Anderson said after the game. “I thought as a team we stepped it up. You expect coming off a little break where you’re going to have a little sluggishness. But I thought in the end we really turned it on.”
Then Barford went crazy from the 8:48 mark when he hit a nice fade-away jumper until his second-straight 3-pointer with 5:09 left, scoring 12 points over a span of 3 minutes and 39 seconds (including 8 points in a minute).
"We got off to a good start, just kind of slowed down as things went on,” Arkansas senior forward Dustin Thomas said. “I just think we played with a lot more energy in the second half. The first half was kind of slow and then we picked it up.”
It got a little chippy around that time with CSUB's bench taunting Razorback fans around them. And then with Arkansas up 25 points on Barford's outburst, 80-55, he and Anton Beard were nailed with technical fouls with 4:49 left.
“I think it was guys just jawing,” Anderson said. “I’m sure it wasn’t one-sided. Probably went both ways. But our guys were the culprit. They got caught.”
Barford finished with 19 points on 8 of 12 shooting, and freshman Daniel Gaford only had 6 points but pulled down 12 rebounds. As a team, Arkansas was 32 of 68 from the floor (47.1 percent), 10 of 27 from beyond the arc (37 percent) and 21 of 31 from the free throw line (67.7 percent).
"He's always been a gifted scorer, that's how he's been. But I think now he's playing more selectively," Anderson said. "I think he only had two rebounds, and we're going to talk about that. But it's good to see him evolving as a player."
“His confidence is sky high right now” fellow senior guard Daryl Macon said. “[He feels] nobody can guard him. That’s a great way to go out there with that confidence.”
The Razorbacks out-rebounded the Roadrunners 47-36, won the turnover battle 17-9 and had a 40-22 advantage in points in the paint. Jarkel Joiner led CSUB with 12 points. The Roadrunners were 22 of 64 shooting (34.4 percent), 7 of 29 from downtown (24.1 percent) and 17 of 25 from the free throw line.
“Thought the first half the game was played the way we wanted to play, little bit slower pace,” CSUB coach Rod Barnes said. “In the second half, their key guys came into the game and stepped it up…tough matchup for us.”
Second Half Rundown
It was 38-38 with 2:11 remaining before halftime before the Razorbacks scored the final four points. Then Macon opened the second half with a pair of 3-pointers to make it a 10-point run and force a Roadrunner timeout with 18:09 to play in the game, down 48-38.
Back-to-back 3-point buckets by Beard within 11 seconds of one another gave Arkansas a 14-point lead, and then a dunk by Macon with 15:49 to play put the Hogs up 56-40. It was an 18-2 stretch for the Razorbacks, including 14-2 in the second half. The 18-2 run lasted 6 minutes and 22 seconds.
Arkansas was still up 14, 60-46, at the under-12 media timeout with 11:52 remaining in the game. It was a 15-point Hog lead, 68-53, with 8:24 left thanks to a nice fade-away from Barford followed by a scooping layup through traffic.
Arkansas went up 17 for the second time with 6:41 remaining when Macon sank a pair of free throws as Arkansas hit the bonus. Then Barford scored 8 points in a minute, and the Hogs took a 25-point lead, 80-55, with 5:09 remaining in the game. It was another 10-0 run for the Hogs. Barford, with all of his 19 points at the time, and Anton Beard, 15 with all 15 of his points, were then slapped with technical fouls with 4:49 remaining and exited the game.
Arkansas never trailed by fewer than 20 points the rest of the way and led by as many as 27 before taking a 95-69 win.
First Half Rundown
It has become typical for the visiting team to get out to an early lead and for Arkansas to start slow offensively. This time, CSUB took a 3-0 lead with Gafford missing on a couple of opportunities and turning the ball over. Then he made a pair of dunks and suddenly it was a 10-3 Razorback lead with 15:51 remaining in the first half.
The Razorbacks pushed that lead out to 10 points, 18-8, on a driving layup by Barford with 12:02 to play in the half. Right out of the third media timeout of the second half with 7:20 to play, Arkansas was shooting 52.2 percent from the floor while holding CSUB to 35 percent, but the Hogs were still only up 27-22. The Roadrunners had two more 3-point buckets and two more made free throws.
The Hogs took their largest lead of the game at the time, 11 points, after a little 10-4 spurt was capped by a 1 of 2 showing at the line from Macon to make it 37-26 at the 4:35 mark. But Cal State Bakersfield came right back with an impressive 11-0 run and tied the game up at 38-38 on a buzzer-beater 3-pointer from Jarkel Joiner with 2:11 to play in the half. The run lasted two minutes and 27 seconds and was broken on a Trey Thompson layup with 1:50 to play in the half.
Macon followed that with a pair of free throws for the last points of the half, giving the Hogs a narrow 42-38 lead at the intermission. Dustin Thomas led the Razorbacks at the half with 10 points on 4 of 5 shooting to go with five rebounds.
Up Next
Up next, the Razorbacks host the No. 19 ranked Tennessee Volunteers (9-2, 0-0 SEC) in the first and only conference game of 2017 for the 2017/18 season.
“They might be ranked, but they’ve got to come to Bud Walton.”
