FAYETTEVILLE — After tinkering with his lineup throughout the first half, Eric Musselman found an unlikely combination that keyed an Arkansas blowout Tuesday night.
The Razorbacks actually trailed by three when a trio of reserves checked in, but they helped the Razorbacks score 15 straight points to end the first half en route to an easy 81-55 win over Elon inside Bud Walton Arena.
A tough layup by Kamani Johnson pulled them within a point, Jaxson Robinson knocked down a 3-pointer in transition to give them the lead and then Trey Wade finished in the paint to match their largest lead of the night.
“Honestly it was the fans, man,” Johnson said. “They gave us a big push. I know when I got my block in and Jax hit a three right after me, the arena just erupted, so we just fed off the fans.”
Arkansas never looked back after that, as Robinson made another couple of 3s to make it 38-26 at halftime. Including a basket just before the aforementioned trio entered the game, the Razorbacks ended the half on a 17-0 run.
The Phoenix managed to score the first four points of the second half, but Arkansas answered with a 9-0 stretch to put the game away.
Leading by as many as 30 in the second half, the Razorbacks ended their two-game skid and improved to 10-2 ahead of SEC play. Elon, meanwhile, dropped to 3-10 overall, including a 1-10 mark against Division I foes.
Although he emphasized multiple times throughout his postgame press conference that it was just “one game,” Musselman was also pleased with how his team bounced back Tuesday nigh.
“It's by far the best game we've played all year,” Musselman said. “I thought we played really, really good basketball for about 30 minutes tonight - really good basketball. I thought our team played with great joy.”
Here are HawgBeat’s key takeaways from the victory…
Unusual Suspects
Arkansas went more than five minutes without leading in the first half and Elon pushed its lead to 26-21 on a dunk by Michael Graham with a little more than six minutes left until halftime.
Chris Lykes made it a one-possession game when he made a layup, but it wasn’t until Johnson, Wade and Robinson checked in together at the 5:15 mark that the Razorbacks regained - and sustained - the lead.
They remained on the court until halftime, a stretch in which Arkansas went 5 of 6 from the floor with four assists and Elon went 0 of 7 with five of the shots being blocked.
“A lot of effort, a lot of energy with those guys,” Musselman said. “A lot of competitiveness. … We looked way more active from a defensive standpoint - blocking shots, getting loose balls, range rebounding, rebounding out of our area.”
Specifically, the two lightly used forwards - Johnson and Wade - brought a physicality to the floor that the Razorbacks have seen this season.
