In the Lane

Barford recovers his touch

Arkansas guard Jaylen Barford drives to the basket during a game against Oral Roberts on Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, in Fayetteville.
Arkansas guard Jaylen Barford drives to the basket during a game against Oral Roberts on Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas Razorbacks guard Jaylen Barford rebounded from an off night in his last outing with a stat line that included a team-high 18 points in the Hogs' 104-69 victory over Oral Roberts on Tuesday night.

Barford connected on his first seven shots and finished 8 of 9 from the field, including 2 of 2 from three-point range. His only miss came on a scoop shot off the backboard from right under the basket.

Barford also had 4 assists, 3 rebounds and a game-high 5 of Arkansas' 14 steals.

The 6-3 senior had gone 2-of-11 shooting in the Razorbacks' 88-63 victory over Troy on Saturday in North Little Rock.

"Last game I got the shots I wanted, I was just missing them," Barford said. "I was kind of short. And coming back tonight, it was just staying aggressive. I don't get too down when I'm not scoring because I can do other things, too. Just stay aggressive and get my teammates involved and keep doing what I do and just rebound the ball and do whatever to get the win, really."

Barford improved his season field goal shooting to 50.7 percent (74 of 146).

Gafford gives

Arkansas freshman Daniel Gafford had a season-high 4 assists to go along with 12 points, 4 rebounds and 2 blocked shots. His previous high had been two assists in a 92-83 victory over Oklahoma.

"Every time it goes down in the post and I get double teamed, it opens up opportunities for our guards and other bigs to cut down to the basket and that's easy buckets, so I just pick them apart on that," Gafford said of his passing from the block.

Hot shots

Both teams shot well, as Arkansas went 41 of 69 (59.4 percent) and Oral Roberts made 29 of 55 shots (52.7 percent).

The Razorbacks hit better than 50 percent of their shots for the seventh time in 11 games, including a high of 60 percent in a 102-67 victory over UConn on Nov. 26. The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville inched over 50 percent as a team, improving its season shooting to 357 of 705 (50.6 percent).

Bench bombing

Arkansas outscored Oral Roberts 42-11 in points off the bench, led by 15 points from C.J. Jones on 5 of 8 three-point shooting and 11 points from Darious Hall.

"They had 42 points off the bench, which is usually unheard of," Oral Roberts Coach Paul Mills said. "Not only do they have experience, they have depth. You have No. 23 [Jones] coming off the bench, and he's an elite-level specialist."

Scoring droughts

Oral Roberts had a pair of scoring dry spells in the first half, the first turning a tight game into a comfortable margin and the second turning the game into a rout.

The Razorbacks broke away from an 8-8 tie with an 11-0 run as the Golden Eagles went scoreless for 4:22.

Later Arkansas turned a 36-21 lead into a 50-21 advantage with a 14-0 run over a span of 4:48.

Hitting 100

Freshman Darious Hall put the Hogs at 100 points when he rebounded a missed three-point shot from Jonathan Holmes for an easy putback with 1:06 remaining, leading to a huge ovation from the announced crowd of 13,945.

Arkansas (9-2) scored more than 100 points for the third time, and more than 90 points for the seventh time in 11 games.

Hall, who finished with 11 points, had a tomahawk dunk off an Oral Roberts turnover 11 seconds later. Holmes scored Arkansas' final points on a short runner from the right baseline.

Missed pairs

The Razorbacks had a poor free-throw shooting performance that included back-to-back missed two-shot opportunities by Dustin Thomas and Anton Beard 1:25 apart in the first six minutes of the game. Adrio Bailey missed an and-one chance a couple of minutes later for the Hogs' fifth consecutive miss.

Arkansas shot 2 of 9 (22.2 percent) from the line in the first half, 6 of 6 in the second half, and 8 of 15 (53.3 percent) for the game.

The Razorbacks' previous season low in free-throw shooting was 53.8 percent (7 of 13) in a 95-79 victory over No. 14 Minnesota on Dec. 9.

9-0

The Razorbacks improved to 9-0 in games in which freshman Daniel Gafford has at least one dunk. Gafford got his slam early, his putback dunk giving Arkansas a 12-8 lead at the 14:42 mark. The 6-11, 234-pounder added two more dunks late in the first half and finished with four of the team's six dunks.

Takeaway trounce

Arkansas scored more points off of turnovers (25) in the first half than the Golden Eagles had total (23).

Oral Roberts had 16 first-half turnovers and 27 turnovers in the game. The Razorbacks outscored the Golden Eagles 42-9 in points off turnovers.

Grandson 3

Spencer Sutton, the grandson of former Arkansas coach Eddie Sutton, hit a three-pointer on his first shot against the Hogs early in the second half. Sutton later caught guard Anton Beard with an inadvertent elbow in the face, drawing a flagrant foul.

He's not the first grandson of an Arkansas coach to make a shot from beyond the arc at Walton Arena. Garrett Richardson of Tennessee State, grandson of Nolan Richardson, made a three-pointer in the Hogs' 90-68 victory on Nov. 17, 2000, with Richardson on the Arkansas bench.

Tip ins

• The Razorbacks started the same five players -- guards Jaylen Barford, Daryl Macon and Anton Beard, and forwards Daniel Gafford and Dustin Thomas -- for the third consecutive game.

• All eight Oral Roberts players who participated in the first half had at least one turnover among the 16 for the Golden Eagles.

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Sports on 12/20/2017

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