Information from Arkansas Communications is included in this story.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Billy Richmond III took seven shots Wednesday night and made every one of them.
His perfect night helped No. 12/13 Arkansas beat Memphis 93-81 in an exhibition at Bud Walton Arena. It was the last tune-up before the games start counting.
Richmond scored 17 points and went 2-for-2 from 3-point range. He also had three assists and two blocks.
He was also a +27, best on the team.
It’s the second straight exhibition where he’s scored exactly 17. He led the Razorbacks in scoring both times, so maybe he’s just got a number he likes.
Jordan Smith Jr. also scored 17, and Miikka Muurinen added a double-double.
The Hogs lived at the rim
Arkansas wasn’t shy about going to the basket. The Hogs dunked 13 times, and eight of those came in the first half.
That’s how you end up with 54 points in the paint.
A lot of those easy looks started on the other end. Memphis turned it over 14 times, and Arkansas came up with 14 steals.
The Razorbacks scored 26 points off those turnovers. Memphis got 11 going the other way.
Arkansas finished with 18 assists and seven blocks too.
Cooper Bowser blocked three shots himself and grabbed eight rebounds. He had 10 boards in the Gonzaga exhibition.
Muurinen, Smith and the bench
Muurinen put the first point on the board with a free throw at 19:41. By the end, he had 10 points, 12 rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Smith was quiet early and busy late. He scored 13 of his 17 in the second half and went 7-of-11 overall with two assists and two blocks.
He was +11 after halftime, which led the team in that half.
The bench gave Arkansas plenty as well. Davion Thompson scored 13 after putting up 12 against Gonzaga.
Maper Maker had seven points, all before the break, and five rebounds.
At the first media timeout, Arkansas sent in five new players: Thompson, Abdou Toure, JJ Andrews, Maker and Caleb Ourigou.
Memphis kept hanging around
Memphis led once all night. Luke Almodovar hit two free throws to make it 7-5.
That didn’t last long. Arkansas ripped off an 11-0 run and later a 7-0 spurt to go up 25-15.
The Hogs led 48-34 at halftime after shooting 54.3% from the field. The 3-point shooting wasn’t nearly as pretty at 4-of-13.
A 7-0 run in the second half made it 65-44, Arkansas’ first 21-point lead. An 8-0 run later pushed it back to 21 with 6:38 left.
Memphis wouldn’t go quietly, though. The Tigers won the second half 47-45 and hit a pair of 3s in the last 1:17 to cut the final margin to 12.
The free throw line helped them a bunch. Memphis made 19 of 25. Arkansas made 15 of 27, and that’s the kind of number that tends to come up at practice.
Nemanja Popovic and Almodovar led the Tigers with 16 points apiece.
UAPB is up next
Exhibition wins don’t count in the standings, but Arkansas sure collects them.
The Razorbacks are 82-11 all-time in these games and 72-6 at home.
They’ve won 41 straight home exhibitions.
They also beat Memphis 99-75 in last year’s exhibition at FedEx Forum.
Now the real schedule starts. Arkansas opens Tuesday, Nov. 3, against UAPB in the first meeting ever between the two schools.
Tipoff is 7 p.m. on SEC Network+.
