Nov. 20, 2008

Final Stats

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- Arkansas fought off several rallies by UC Davis on its way to a 68-59 victory over the visiting Aggies Thursday night at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark. The Razorbacks led by as many as 17 points and 15 in the second half before the Aggies closed within four points. Joe Harden led UC Davis (1-3) with 16 points to go along with seven rebounds. Mark Payne added 11 points and a game-high nine assists. Courtney Fortson led Arkansas (2-0) with 16 points.

Arkansas led 36-27 at the half and opened the second half with an 8-2 run to lead 44-29 at the 17:06 mark. The Aggies came back with a 15-4 blitz over the next 3:29 and cut the deficit to 48-44. The key moment during the stretch was when the Aggies scored five straight points from the line with 16:21 to play. Harden was fouled on three-point attempt, and Arkansas head coach John Pelphrey was called for a technical foul. Vince Oliver, who finished with eight points, made both technical free throws before Harden capped off the sequence with three more to make it 44-37 at that point. A Dominic Calegari trey with 13:45 remaining pulled UC Davis within 48-44.

During the Aggies' run, Arkansas was held without a field goal. In fact, the Razorbacks went over seven minutes without a field goal before a layup by Jason Henry made it 55-46 with 9:38 remaining. The Razorbacks would lead by as many as 13 points at the 8:07 mark before the Aggies responded with an 11-4 run. Oliver and Harden started it with consecutive threes, and Adam Malik made a trey with 3:11 remaining to cut it to 63-57. Arkansas scored the next four points to lead 67-57 with less than a minute to play.

In the first half, the Razorbacks had their largest lead of 33-16 with 3:58 left before UC Davis closed the half on an 11-3 run. Kyle Brucculeri had one of his three treys during the stretch as the Aggies held the Razorbacks to just one field goal in the final 3:58 of the half.

Michael Washington added 11 points and six rebounds, which was well off his pace of 30 points and 14 rebounds in the Razorbacks' opener. Michael Sanchez tossed in 12 points and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds. Rotnei Clark, who made five three-pointers in his team's opener, finished with nine points and no threes.

"I thought we did some really good things," said UC Davis head coach Gary Stewart. "We went into the game wanting to limit Michael Washington's touches on the interior and wanted to get him off the backboard. He had one offensive rebound. We also wanted to get to Rotnei Clark and limit the amount of three-point opportunities he got, and he went 0-for-3 from that range so we did a very good job there."

"We just didn't shoot the ball really well," added Stewart. "We settled for some three-point opportunities when I thought we had opportunities on the interior. I can't fault our effort. I thought our kids competed very well. It was just an uphill battle."

For the game, Arkansas shot 43 percent while holding the Aggies to 33 percent. UC Davis shot 30 percent from beyond the arc with a 9-for-30 effort. The Aggie defense held Arkansas to just 1-for-13 from three-point range.

UC Davis is next in action Sunday when it hosts Portland in its home opener. The game tips at 2 p.m. at The Pavilion.