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After a slow start, Arkansas found its rhythm in the final minutes of the first half to pull away for a 100-75 win over UCA on Saturday and move to 6-0 on the season.

With the victory, head coach Eric Musselman became the first coach in UA history to win the first six games in each of his first two seasons.

The Bears were not intimidated in their first game against the Razorbacks since 1947. Entering the game, Arkansas’s largest deficit of the season was three points against UT-Arlington. The Bears got out to a 6-0 lead, doubling that largest deficit, until Jalen Tate hit a three with 16:57 in the first half.

The Razorbacks started off cold, missing shots, turning the ball over, and committing unnecessary fouls. At the first media timeout at 15:13, UCA outrebounded Arkansas 6-3 and forced two Razorback turnovers. The Razorbacks had already committed three fouls, as well.

“You can’t overreact,” Musselman said. “I certainly think that the players understand it’s a 40-minute game and we didn’t play very well right at the start.”

After this slow start, the Razorbacks picked up the intensity, forcing two turnovers immediately out of the media timeout that led to two Razorback points from Jalen Tate to cut the UCA lead to 10-9. Those points put Tate over 1,000 in his career.

The Bears responded with a putback layup to expand the lead back to three, and forced another Arkansas turnover, which led to a Deandre Jones deep three pointer.

The Bears pushed the tempo, playing with short possessions and focusing on driving to the basket.

“I loved the pace we played at," Musselman said. "We knew Central Arkansas ran the ball and so for us it was important for us to run with them. We didn’t want to slow the tempo down at all.”

After a Jones alley-oop to SK Shittu, Musselman called a timeout at the 12:11 mark with his team down 19-12. After that timeout, the Bears pushed the lead out to 10, up 22-12 with 11:35 to go in the first half.

“I thought (trailing) was good for us," Musselman said. "We still led for 27 minutes. We won the game by 25 points. I think we played pretty well. We would like to have gotten off to a better start, but having said that, we are sitting here with a 25-point win, and we scored 100 points, and I didn’t think we shot the ball very well. We didn’t do a very good job getting to the free throw line, and we got out-rebounded and still won by 25. So I think there’s a lot of positives.”

The Razorbacks seemed to push to take contested or difficult shots. Musselman tried different rotations and rotated the guards until he found a combination that worked. One combination worked well enough to go on a 7-0 run, forcing a UCA timeout at 8:16 with a 25-23 lead. Desi Sills, Connor Vanover, and Jalen Tate each scored on the run.

After the timeout, Tate hit a three to give the Razorbacks their first lead of the game, 26-25, with 7:43 to go in the first half. After taking the lead, the Hogs kept the foot on the gas, leading 36-28 at the final media timeout of the first half.

From the 6:06 to 3:54 mark, the Bears committed six straight turnovers. The Razorbacks closed out the half on a 29-13 to take a 41-35 lead.

The Hogs kept their run going in the second half, expanding the lead to 13 at one point before the first media timeout. The lead hovered around 10 for most of the first 10 minutes of the second half until Jaxson Baker three had the Bears within six. The Razorbacks quickly expanded the lead back to nine with an answer behind the arc from Moses Moody, putting him in double digits.

The Bears hung around for most of the second half, but Arkansas started to pull away in the closing minutes. At the under-eight media timeout, Arkansas held a 77-62 lead with three players in double digits scoring and another three knocking on the door.

In the following minutes, Notae led an 8-0 run by himself, including two threes, to put the Hogs up 85-62 and to give him 1,000 career points. It is only the second time two Razorback teammates reached 1,000 career points in the same game, the first being Daryl Macon and Jaylen Barford in 2017-2018. Tate and Notae’s feat includes numbers from previous stops, though, while Barford and Macon’s were just their Razorback careers.

When asked about the 1,000 point achievement, Tate first deflected to his relationship with Notae before talking about his age.

“With JD, that’s my brother, man,” Tate said. “Since we have been down here, we have just connected. I can literally count on my two hands the days we haven’t been together…There is a chemistry between me and him foremost and it’s just right that we did it on the same night.”

Tate continued, “It makes me feel really old. I have been doing this thing forever. It took me awhile to get to a thousand, I mean geez. But it is a great feeling. It is a huge accomplishment. There is a long list of guys that have done it before and I am glad that helped it along here in my transfer year…It is just a great feeling.”

“I think a thousand points is a great mark for any college basketball player from a scoring standpoint," Musselman said. "We just talked about it in the locker room with the guys and had a little fun celebrating. JD and Jalen, both guys can score the ball, but also are willing distributors as well.”

At the final media timeout with 2:48 remaining, the Razorbacks held a 89-66 lead with five players in double figures. The Hogs won the game 100-75. Despite the early struggles, there was plenty to take away from the historic in-state matchup.

Musselman shortened the rotation drastically, only playing seven players a majority of the game. Of those seven, the only freshman was Moses Moody, who scored 15 points to match his average. He has scored in double figures in every game of his collegiate career so far.

“Other than that first game, I think he’s come out and, for any freshman, it’s hard, but he’s been consistent," Musselman said. "He’s a go-to player. I love his business-like approach. He stays after practice, he comes in in the middle of the day and gets shots up.”

Five of the other six players were transfers, with the lone veteran Razorback being Desi Sills, who added 17 points. If tonight was any indicator, the core of the main rotation is set with the eighth and ninth man still to be determined.

Tate, a proven defender, showcased his offensive ability, scoring 17 points and 11 assists while not committing a single turnover. The biggest surprise was that he shot 60% (3-5) from deep.

Tate said, “Since I stepped foot here, I'm really just trying to every single day better my shot, whether it's off the dribble, step ins and just trying to be the best player I can to help our team. Really, it's one of those things that we put in the type of work where if you don't shoot it, you're taking away from what you've been doing and pretty much wasting your time.”

With 17 points, Tate put up the highest scoring points-assists double-double for Arkansas since Gary Ervin put up 18 points and 11 assists against Alabama in 2007. (Courtney Fortson scored 20 points in his triple-double effort against North Carolina Central in 2008.) The 11 assists also marked a career high for Tate. Musseman echoed those sentiments in the presser.

“I thought he was phenomenal for us tonight," Musselman said. "6 of 8 from the field, 3 of 5 from three. He knocked down both his free throws, 17 points, 11 assists. And then he guarded, too.”

After struggling in recent weeks, JD Notae led all scorers with 22 points. The high-volume shooter struggled early, but found his rhythm late in the second half for his highest point total as a Hog.

“When a shot falls it's going to make you feel a little better," Notae said. "I know I was struggling. I had open looks, they just didn't fall. It was definitely good to see the late ones go in.”

Cal transfer Connor Vanover did not quite reach double digits as he is accustomed, but he played 27 minutes and had 9 points and 10 rebounds to go with 2 blocks.

“When you look at the plus-minus, Connor was really, really good for us tonight,” Musselman said. “Love to see Connor emotional, ‘THROW ME THE BALL! THROW ME THE BALL! I’M OPEN!’ We need more of that with him in the post because he’s got a soft touch and I like to see him verbalize that he wanted the rock down there. He’s been great for us all year.”

Vance Jackson contributed six points, and fellow grad transfer Justin Smith added a quiet 12 points.

The Bears out-rebounded the Razorbacks 37-35 after one of the best rebounding performances of Coach Musselman’s college coaching career. The Razorbacks did have 26 assists and only 8 turnovers, though, to make up for the rebounding effort. Defensively, the Hogs added 8 blocks and 10 steals while forcing 14 Bears turnovers.

“We went to our trap game and I thought they did a good job of being prepared and scoring in the first half against our traps,” Musselman said. “But we do try to funnel as much as we can into our shot-blockers. Obviously Connor is the main guy but Justin Smith did a nice job tonight I thought of protecting the rim and played a lot better for us defensively as a little more of a rim protector.”

The undefeated Razorbacks now have to wait eight days before playing again. They host Oral Roberts at Bud Walton Arena on Dec. 20.