FAYETTEVILLE — A run late in the first half proved to be the difference for Arkansas on Saturday.
The No. 10 Razorbacks battled Little Rock to a stalemate in the second half, but their 15-point halftime lead provided the final margin in a 93-78 win inside Bud Walton Arena.
In the second of two straight games against in-state foes, Arkansas outscored the Trojans 15-4 over the final 4:09 in the first half to blow open the game.
However, despite being down multiple starters because of injuries and having only eight healthy players available, Little Rock managed to keep it close for most of the second half.
“I thought the effort was really good,” Little Rock head coach and former Arkansas great Darrell Walker said. “I had told my team watching film that if we didn’t turn the ball over a lot and we could kind of stay within the rebound margin and make some shots, we would have a chance to be in the basketball game and that’s what happened.”
The Trojans used a 14-2 run to cut their deficit to five with about 15 minutes remaining, but that was as close as they’d get. Down the stretch, JD Notae scored nine straight points for the Razorbacks to push the lead to double digits for good.
Arkansas improved to 8-0 with the win, while Little Rock dropped to 4-5.
“There’s a reason there’s only 12 teams at the moment — to my knowledge — that are undefeated in college basketball,” head coach Eric Musselman said. “It’s really hard to win a game. They’re trying to win, we’re trying to win. But yeah, defensively, we didn’t play as good as we need to play. And we didn’t play for 40 minutes quite the way that I want us to play.”
Here are a few of the key takeaways from the Razorbacks’ win over the Trojans…
Toney’s Dominant Half
Fresh off a big second half against Central Arkansas earlier in the week, Au’Diese Toney took over the game early against Little Rock.
He scored 16 of his 18 points in the first half, giving him 30 points on 11 of 12 shooting over a span of two halves against the in-state foes. The Razorbacks were plus-31 in Toney’s 29 minutes during that stretch.
“It was just paint touches, just attacking the paint and getting easy points,” Toney said about his first half performance. “They don’t guard as well. They’re always watching the ball, so it’s a lot of back cuts and stuff like that, and we took advantage of it.”
Musselman said that although he’s a perimeter player, Toney is really effective around the basket and praised him for how hard he cuts. He does a good job finishing in traffic and draws a lot of fouls. Musselman’s only complaint Saturday was his free throw shooting, as he was 5 of 9 from the stripe.
His style of play and importance to the team’s success has drawn comparisons to Justin Smith, who was vital in Arkansas’ Elite Eight run last year.
“The stuff that he does, I mean, it's not glamorous, it's basically stuff that just wins basketball games and quite honestly, that's what he loves to do is just win,” Musselman said. “He's become so valuable to us much like Justin was and we run less plays for Au'Diese than we did Justin… It's hard to take him off the floor.”
