FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Cameron turned the ball over 52 times Thursday night at Bud Walton Arena. That’s a record for an Arkansas women’s basketball opponent, topping the 43 Murray State had back in 1990.
Grace McCallop had her hands on a lot of those. The sophomore guard finished with 11 steals, 10 rebounds and 15 points in 23 minutes as the Razorbacks won their only exhibition 116-55.
The Grace McCallop triple-double is just the second in Arkansas history, counting any game. The other belongs to C’eria Ricketts, who had one against Auburn in 2009.
McCallop got her 10th rebound with 2:22 to go in the third quarter. She scored nine of her points in that quarter, which was the Hogs’ best of the night at 31 points. The Kansas City, Kansas, native spent most of the game in passing lanes.
Arkansas led 88-35 heading to the fourth, a 57-point margin. Cameron did score 20 in the final quarter, its most in any period, as the Razorbacks eased up on defense.
D’Asia Thomas-Harris led Arkansas with 26 points and grabbed 20 rebounds. No Hog had put up a 20-20 game since Melissa Wolf in 2015.
Thomas-Harris did a lot of that work in the second quarter, when she had 11 points and 14 rebounds by herself. Arkansas went into halftime up 37, and she passed the 20-point mark early in the fourth.
Emily Robinson added 25 points. She’s the only player on the roster who saw minutes for last year’s team.
Arkansas spent the preseason hearing about its defense. Cameron didn’t even take a shot until there was 5:35 left in the first quarter.
The Aggies were down 15-0 when they finally scored on a 3-pointer, 34 seconds after their first try. They had 19 turnovers in the first quarter alone.
Arkansas scored 24 of its 28 first-quarter points off turnovers, and 22 of those were in the paint. Robinson had eight points in the quarter, all of them off turnovers.
The 3-point shot wasn’t falling for the Hogs. They missed their first 12 and ended up 6 of 34 from deep, which is 18%.
Arkansas went 20 of 34 at the line for 59%. The Razorbacks shot 42% overall on 45-of-108 shooting.
Cameron shot 43% from the field, going 21 of 49. The Aggies were 5 of 10 from 3 and 8 of 18 at the line, though 49 shots in a whole game doesn’t give you much of a sample size.
Arkansas’ unofficial first starting lineup was McCallop, Robinson, Thomas-Harris, guard Jianna Morris and freshman forward Kyiah Prestridge. Beautiful Waheed came off the bench to score 11, giving the Hogs four players in double figures.
Prestridge had eight points and five steals. Sophomore forward Daniah Trammell also had five steals to go with nine rebounds.
The 116 points were the most for Arkansas in an exhibition since at least 2014.
New Orleans comes to Bud Walton Arena on Monday, Nov. 2, for the regular-season opener. Tipoff is 6:30 p.m. on SEC Network+.
