FAYETTEVILLE -- Makayla Daniels ran off the court with a bounce in her step and a huge smile on her face.
Daniels and her University of Arkansas teammates were looking to bounce back from a loss at Kentucky and did so in big fashion with an 83-43 blowout against Georgia on Sunday at Walton Arena.
Daniels scored a game-high 24 points, including her team's first nine points of the game, as Arkansas recorded the third-largest margin of victory in an SEC game in program history.
And the Razorbacks did it with their leading scorer on the bench.
Freshman guard Taliah Scott missed the game with an undisclosed injury, removing 22 points per game from the Arkansas lineup. Daniels and her teammates covered for her absence and then some.
"I've felt myself being less aggressive the past few games, so I knew I had to come out more aggressive today," said Daniels, who knocked down 5 three-pointers to go with 7 rebounds and 5 steals. "I knew this game, we didn't know who was going to be the leading scorer, but we knew we were going to get our easy shots, so that was our focus in practice the past few days."
Arkansas Coach Mike Neighbors said the team first learned of Scott's injury Friday, so they had time to prepare to play without her.
Carly Keats started in place of Scott, and the sophomore guard scored a career-high 16 points while playing all 40 minutes.
"Carly had two great days of practice," Neighbors said. "We have a lot of confidence in Carly, so we knew she was ready and she was."
The Razorbacks' (13-4, 1-1 SEC) 73-63 loss to Kentucky in their SEC opener on Thursday, a game in which they scored just 14 first-half points, snapped a four-game winning streak.
Arkansas scored 49 points in the first half Sunday and never trailed after taking a 9-2 lead. Daniels drained a corner three-pointer on her first shot of the game, added a three-point play, then a second three-pointer for the 9-2 lead with 7:46 left in the opening quarter.
"That settled me down, for sure, to hit that first shot," Daniels said. "When you miss a couple of shots early, you press a little. But that first one was an easy one and it led us into a better flow."
Neighbors said the fast start, particularly with Daniels hitting the early three-pointers, gave the entire a team a jolt of confidence.
"Shooting is absolutely contagious," Neighbors said. "You can see that with our team. When we hit those shots early, the whole team seems to feed off of that."
Arkansas had just one turnover in the first half and led 49-18 at halftime.
"I don't know that we can play much better than we did in the first half," Neighbors said. "When we went in at halftime, I didn't want to say anything to change our mindset. But we knew Georgia was going to try and make a run in the third and our players responded."
Saylor Poffenbarger, who had 15 points and 17 rebounds, squelched any comeback Georgia (10-5, 1-1) might have entertained. She hit 3 three-pointers in the third quarter, accounting for more than half of Arkansas' 17 points in the period, and finished 4 of 6 from three-point range.
The Razorbacks filled the stat sheet with 14 three-pointers, forced 20 turnovers, had 12 steals and outrebounded Georgia 51-40.
Samara Spencer also scored 15 points for Arkansas and handed out four assists.
Javyn Nicholson, Georgia's leading scorer, recorded her seventh consecutive double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. No other Georgia player scored more than seven points.
Neighbors said they should know more about Scott's injury Monday.
"It kind of happened at a weird time when we could not get her in to see the doctor," Neighbors said. "We were being very precautionary and we'll know a lot more [Monday]. We had two days of practice without her. She didn't practice either of the two days.
"You don't ever want to lose a player, much less a player who has played like she has, but it allowed us two days of practice, so it wasn't like we found out at tipoff, which can be tough. I thought what it did is it allowed our kids to rally around Keats."
Arkansas will return to action at 8 p.m. Thursday with a game at home against Mississippi State.