Arkansas will seek to extend its winning streak to seven games when it visits slumping Georgia in a Southeastern Conference game Wednesday night in Athens, Ga.
The Razorbacks (16-5, 5-3 SEC) are coming off a 77-68 home win over visiting West Virginia in an SEC/Big 12 Challenge game Saturday in which Arkansas never trailed and led by as many as 19 points in the second half.
Georgia (6-15, 1-7) suffered an 85-77 loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday in a game in which the Bulldogs never led and lost for the ninth time in their past 10 games.
Arkansas had one of its best offensive performances of the season against the Mountaineers. Au’Diese Toney scored a team-high 19 points to go along with seven rebounds, Jaylin Williams had 12 points and 15 rebounds, and JD Notae added 15 points.
Arkansas shot 45.1 percent (23-for-51) from the field and shot 34 free throws, making 28, and outrebounded the Mountaineers 44-26.
“If we didn’t rebound, we weren’t going to win, flat out,” Arkansas coach Eric Musselman said. “We have all these sheets up and do all this stuff in walk-through and going through all their offensive sets and their play calls. It really didn’t matter tonight. It was like, ‘You better go rebound or you’re not winning the game.’ I thought defensive boards, we were phenomenal.”
Notae averages an SEC-leading 18.8 points per game to go along with a team-high 2.4 steals. Toney averages 11.1 points and 5.5 rebounds.
Against Vanderbilt, Georgia fell behind 16-6 early and never recovered. The visiting Bulldogs allowed Vanderbilt to shoot 50.9 percent (28-for-55) from the field, including 52.2 percent (12-for-23) from 3-point range.
Georgia’s Aaron Cook scored 18 points on 7-for-12 shooting, with Noah Baumann and Kario Oquendo adding 15 points apiece.
“We didn’t establish from the beginning what we needed to do defensively,” Georgia coach Tom Crean said. “They got too comfortable and they made open shots, and that gave them confidence throughout the game. Having an aggressive mentality is far more important on the defensive end than it is on the offensive end. We have got to do a better job of being aggressive defensively to start games.”
Georgia is led by Oquendo, who averages a team-high 12.7 points, and Braelen Bridges with a team-high 5.9 rebounds. Aaron Cook leads the team in assists (5.9) and steals (1.3).
–Field Level Media
