College Students, get a year of HawgBeat coverage for just $11.95. Request details via email from your school account (.edu) to nchavanelle@yahoo.com.

Not a subscriber? Subscribe for free for 30 days w/code HAWGS30
NEW USERS | RETURNING USERS

It wasn't always pretty, but Arkansas remained undefeated with a second-half comeback win over Oral Roberts on Sunday.

Led by a monster double-double by Justin Smith, the Razorbacks overcame a 12-point deficit and beat the Golden Eagles 87-76 inside Bud Walton Arena.

Although 7-foot-3 Connor Vanover started the game, he didn't see the floor as much as usual and Smith was asked to play the 5 spot quite a bit in the second half.

The graduate transfer from Indiana responded by contributing 22 points and a career-high 17 rebounds in 39 minutes for Arkansas.

"Today was my first game primarily playing the five," Smith said. "But in practice, we go over the plays every day, so I'm able to see what the five is doing and really learn all the spots."

The decision to go with a small lineup that featured Smith at the five was made after Vanover played just 10 minutes in the first half. Head coach Eric Musselman said Oral Roberts was exploiting him defensively and he wanted extra speed on the floor.

"We just felt like they were putting him in middle pick-and-roll and I wanted to play with more speed and kind of match down a little bit with them," Musselman said. "Certainly to win the second half by 21 points it worked to our advantage, although Connor has been as good as anybody on our roster and he’s going to be as valuable as any guy on our team.”

Smith's performance was critical Sunday afternoon because the Razorbacks struggled mightily in the first half before rallying after halftime and pulling out the victory.

After a couple of empty possessions for each team, Moses Moody put the first points up of the game at the 18:49 mark with a floater in the paint. He followed that up with another floater at the 17:57 mark. The Razorbacks utilized their size advantage early, taking a 6-0 lead with 5 offensive rebounds and all six points coming as second chance points.

Oral Roberts finally got on the board with a layup at the 17:07 mark and hit a jumpshot at 15:57 to cut the Razorback lead to two. The next possession, Desi Sills scored on a putback from a Vanover missed corner three, giving the Razorbacks eight second chance points.

The Golden Eagles quickly came back down the floor, leading to an open DeShang Weaver three. Arkansas led 8-7 at the under-16 media timeout with 14:37 to play in the half.

Immediately out of the media timeout, Connor Vanover scored on a putback from his own missed shot. All of the first 10 points came from offensive rebounds. Weaver made another jumper to keep the game within one point.

Former Razorback RJ Glasper scored at the 12:28 mark, giving Oral Roberts their first lead of the game at 11-10.

The first basket not coming from an offensive rebound came from a Smith dunk at the 11:50 mark to tie the game at 12. Arkansas took back the lead 13-12 after Vance Jackson split two free throws at the 10:48 mark. That was the last lead the Razorbacks would have until the second half, as the Hogs struggled the rest of the half.

A mismatch inside with Kevin Obanor backing down Sills led to a turnaround jumper and the Golden Eagles lead at 14-13. A Kareem Thompson jumper at 9:33 expanded the lead to three. A drive and dish to Obanor made the score 18-13 Golden Eagles, followed by a Glasper layup.

Coach Musseman called a timeout with 8:20 remaining in the first half down 20-13. At that point, the Razorbacks had missed all 10 of their attempts from behind the arc and were shooting 22.3 percent from the field overall (6 of 27).

Out of the timeout, the Razorbacks missed multiple shots, but kept the possession alive, eventually ending in a Tate layup to cut the Oral Roberts lead to five. After a ORU free throw, true freshman Davonte Davis drove and then kicked to Vanover for a corner three. Oral Roberts led 21-18 at 6:45.

Sills went up to contest a layup and went down with an injury, but was able to walk off the court after a few moments.

“I hit my thumb on the rim and my shoulder went back, but what one of our trainers did, he helped me get back and told me to keep squeezing it and gave me a ball and I kept squeezing it," Sills said of the injury. "I just came back and tried to help my team win.”

Glasper hit a free throw and Weaver followed with another three pointer to extend the lead to 7 again. The next Razorback possession, Davis turned the ball over and committed a foul on Abmas, who converted the layup and the free throw for a three point play. The Golden Eagles led 28-18 with 5:59 to go in the first half.

Sills made one of two free throws after a hard drive to the bucket, but Oral Roberts answered with a three from Thompson at 4:53 to lead 31-19. Razorback senior Vance Jackson answered with a three of his own to cut the deficit back to single digits.

Glasper responded again with a three pointer of his own, but the Razorbacks attacked the basket on the next possession to draw a foul on Abmas, the Golden Eagles’ leading scorer on the year. At the 3:39 mark and final media timeout of the first half, Abmas had three personal fouls.

Jackson split the free throws again out of the timeout. The next bucket came yet again from an offensive rebound from Smith, who got fouled on the play and converted the free throw. Oral Roberts led 34-26 with 2:46 left in the first half.

Obanor made two free throws and a layup to increase the lead to 12, then Moses Moody came back down to hit a floater with 1:32 remaining. Justin Smith made a layup to close the first half with Oral Roberts leading the Razorbacks 40-30. It was the Razorbacks’ first halftime deficit of the season.

The Razorbacks led the rebounding battle 32-19, mostly having to do with the fact that Arkansas had 15 offensive rebounds on 28 missed shots. Arkansas shot a ghastly 30% from the field, 12.5% from three, and 57.1% from the free throw line. They also turned the ball over nine times.

Obanor opened the half with a jumpshot for Oral Roberts, but JD Notae and Tate followed up with two layups of their own. The momentum was cut off short by a Weaver three pointer t lead 45-34.

Sills drove the lane off a Smith offensive rebound to make a layup, and then took a rebound on the other end the length of the court and passed to Smith for a layup and a foul. Smith converted the three point play, cutting the Golden Eagles lead to 6, 45-39.

Thompson hit another three to lead by nine. A missed layup by Sills, an offensive foul by Tate, and a foul by Davis led to the first media timeout of the second half with the Razorbacks frustrated and the Golden Eagles with momentum.

Tate drove baseline and found Sills under the basket for a layup, then Sills returned the favor to Tate in transition after a Golden Eagles turnover. Immediately following that, the Hogs forced a shot clock violation, the fourth straight possession the Razorbacks had forced a turnover. It led to an empty offensive possession, but the Hogs forced a fifth straight turnover that led to a Notae layup. After an Oral Roberts missed three pointer, Arkansas converted the stop into another layup from Sills.

The Golden Eagles called a timeout at 13:09 after an 8-0 run from the Razorbacks. Coming out of the timeout, Smith contested an Obanor layup, leading to a JD Notae layup in transition for the Razorbacks to take the lead at 12:49. It was their first lead in the game since being up 13-12.

Oral Roberts ended the run with an open layup after breaking the Razorbacks’ press. An empty possession from Arkansas led to Obanor getting the ball inside and drawing a foul on Notae, making one of two free throws.

Abmas pulled up from NBA range, giving the Golden Eagles a 54-49 lead. Arkansas responded with a Moody putback after yet another missed layup.

Arkansas’s first 12 points of the second half came on layups, which Musselman said was a focus coming out of halftime.

“It was pretty simple,” Musselman said. “If you take ill-advised shots, you’re coming out. And if you don’t defend, you’re coming out, and if you don’t go the defense boards you’re coming out.”

Sills said, “I mean, it wasn't as bad, but he got on us. He just told us we need to take better shots and quit turning the ball over. We had nine turnovers at half, and normally that's what we're supposed to have for the game. I feel like we did what we had to do in the second half to turn it around.”

Musselman earned a technical foul at 11:34 after being on the officials’ cases all day. Abmas split the two technical free throws, and then Moody made his free throw after being fouled on his putback. The Hogs trailed 55-52.

Musselman didn’t comment when asked about the technical. “I won’t say anything," Musselman said. "I’d rather save the money to get my wife a Louis Vuitton bag or something like that.”

Tate drove the lane for a layup to cut the Oral Roberts lead to one. Notae went the length of the court and missed a contested layup, but Moody followed it to give the Hogs another one point lead 56-55 with 10:12 to play.

The next possession, Notae pump-faked at the three point line and drew a foul on Glasper, leading to three free throws. Glasper and Abmas both had four fouls, and Notae made all three free throws to push the Razorback lead to four.

“We knew Glasper and Abmas were their best players and we wanted to go at him, get him in foul trouble and get him out of the game as quick as we could,” Sills said.

Oral Roberts would not go away, though. Thompson hit a three with 9:12 left to cut the lead to one, but Moody responded with his own three. Glasper followed with a midrange jumper himself as the scoring went back and forth. After a Tate turnover and foul and two made free throws from Carlos Jurgens, the score was tied at 62 with 8:23 to go.

Smith quickly took the lead back for the Hogs with a layup. On the missed free throw, Moody rebounded and was fouled and went to the line and missed the front end of the one ad one. After another steal and getting fouled going for a dunk, Smith made both free throws to grow the Arkansas lead to four with 8:01 remaining.

Right out of the under-eight media timeout, Notae attacked the basket and drew a foul, making both free throws. Obanor made a layup and Sills followed with a three to make the score 71-64 Arkansas with a couple minutes of no scoring.

After the lull, Glasper converted two free throws to make it 71-66. Moody followed immediately with a dunk on the assist from Tate. After another Smith layup, the Hogs pulled the ball out to start running clock up nine in the final four minutes. A Glasper jumper made cut the deficit to seven. At the final media timeout, the Razorbacks led 75-68.

After a drawn out final four minutes with a bunch of fouls and free throws, the Razorbacks won 87-76 after a much-improved second half of play.

The team finished with four players in double figures: Smith, Moody, Sills, and Notae. Sills finished with his first career double-double and a career-high 10 rebounds.

“One of the things we haven’t talked about Desi having 10 rebounds," Musselman said. "Any time you can get your off guard down there rebounding the ball like Desi did tonight, four offensive boards, I thought he was really vital to us as well.”

Sills said, “We had a list and all the way at the bottom of the food chain was rebounds. My mindset coming into the game is try to get at it, get every loose ball and try to get every rebound. That was just my mindset coming in. I felt like I did a good job at it today.

Smith's aforementioned career-high 17 rebounds included 10 on the offensive glass - something an Arkansas player hasn't done since Bobby Portis in 2015. With his 22 points, he became just the fourth Arkansas player with a 20-15 game in the past decade, joining Jimmy Whitt, Daniel Gafford, and Portis.

“I thought he was great,” Musselman said. “He can defensive rebound even better than what he’s done thus far. Offensive rebounding… He’s as good an offensive rebounder as I’ve coached. Defensively, it’s really hard to take him off the floor, because he can guard 1 through 5. So, because of his defensive ability, we really tend to rely on him. Then I thought offensively he stayed around that dunker spot and was really effective on the offensive boards and finishing around the rim in the second half.”

Smith admittedly struggled scoring the ball in the first half, but he did finish shooting 45 percent from the field (9 of 20) thanks to a strong second half effort on his way to posting his fifth career double-double.

"I just started taking my time,” Smith said. “I think in the first half I started rushing, especially on those layups. I've got to make those. Those are gimmes. I think I responded well in the second half. Just kind of taking my time and really focusing on the finish. Hopefully, I can build on that going forward because I've already struggled with it this season and it needs to get better."

Moody struggled a little bit in the first half, according to Musselman, but still managed to put up 18 points and 7 rebounds on 7-of-12 shooting.

“I thought Moses did a good job in the second half on the glass," Musselman said. "His shot selection was much better second half than it was in the first half. But he struggled. I thought tonight was the first night that he struggled on both ends of the floor. That happens at times, but I did think he regrouped and any time a guy can score 18 points in 28 minutes on a night that maybe he wasn’t at his best shows you the type of talent that he is.”

The final rebounding margin was plus-26 (58-32), marking the third time this season the Hogs have been plus-20 on the boards. It had been five years since the Razorbacks last out-rebounded a team by at least 20.

The Razorbacks have a quick turnaround, hosting Abilene Christian at 4 p.m. CT Tuesday. It will be their second game in three days and be televised on the SEC Network.