FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Khalif Battle reached the 1,000-point mark for his career on his first shot attempt – a 3-pointer at 16:07 of the first half, and finished with a season-high 25 points to lead Arkansas to a 97-83 victory over Furman Monday night at Bud Walton Arena.
Chandler Lawson and Davonte Davis also played a key role in the win. Lawson had a career-high 19 points (8-of-10 shooting) with three blocked shots. Davis nearly had a triple-double with seven points while tying career highs in both rebounds (10) and assists (8).
For the second-straight game, Arkansas had a high assist-to-baskets made percentage, dishing out 21 assists on 37 made baskets. As a result, the Razorbacks shot 60.7% from the field, which is the fourth-best shooting percentage by the Hogs during the Eric Musselman era and fifth-best by any Musselman-coached collegiate team.
Battle and Lawson scored two quick baskets for the Hogs to start the second half and the Razorbacks never looked back. Furman hung around and was down six (58-52 with 11:57 left). Arkansas then went on a 15-1 run to lead by 20 with 9:16 left.
Furman got as close as seven twice, the last with 52 seconds left, but the Paladins didn’t score the rest of the way while Arkansas was able to break the press for the 14-point win.
Arkansas’ defense held Furman to just 28.6% (4-of-14) from 3-point range in the second half while the Hogs made 5-of-10.
Trevon Brazile finished with 13 points and two blocked shots. Layden Blocker contributed nine points (4-of-5 FG) with a season-high five rebounds, a season-high five assists and a season-high three blocked shots. In fact, Blocker entered the game with 10 total rebounds, four total assists and one blocked shot.
Furman was led by JP Pegues and Alex Williams. Pegues had 21 points, going 10-of-10 from the line, while Williams scored 20 points thanks to five 3-pointers.
Arkansas shot an impressive 60% from the field and all 10 Razorbacks that played in the period scored at least two points. However, Furman made its first five 3-pointers and finished the half with eight of its 13 made baskets from 3-point range to keep it the Paladins within striking distance.
Arkansas hits the road to play the third and final Crimson and Cardinal Classic, facing No. 19 Oklahoma Sooners in Tulsa’s BOK Center. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. and the game will be televised on ESPN2.
Hogs’ Notes
• Arkansas starters were El Ellis, Davonte Davis, Jeremiah Davenport, Trevon Brazile and Chandler Lawson.
• Arkansas controlled the tip to start the game.
• Trevon Brazile scored the first points of the game at 19:37.
• Khalif Battle was the first Razorback sub.
• Battle scored his 1,000th career point after making his first shot attempt, a 3-pointer at 16:07 in the first half. He finished with 25 points and has 1,022 points in his 78-game career (Butler, Temple and Arkansas).
• This was the fifth time in nine games that Battle has led the Hogs in scoring. He has led his team in scoring 31 times and has scored at least 20 points 26 times.
• This was the first meeting between Arkansas and Furman.
• Tramon Mark made his return to the lineup. He missed the Duke game after injuring himself versus North Carolina in the Hogs’ final game of the Battle 4 Atlantis. Mark finished with seven points in 26:27.
• Arkansas entered the game fifth in the NCAA in free throw attempts. However, the Razorbacks were just 1-of-2 at the free throw line in the first half. Arkansas was 14-of-19 at the line in the second line.
• Arkansas entered the game second in the NCAA in blocked shots (6.8 avg.). The Hogs have blocked 10 shots in each of the last two games (Duke and Furman) and had a season-high 15 earlier this season versus Gardner-Webb,
• During the first half, Arkansas presented $254,694 to support the Arkansas 211 program of the United Way of NWA to contribute to tornado relief in Arkansas from this past spring. The money was raised during Arkansas’ charity exhibition game versus Purdue on Oct. 28.
• Arkansas scored 51 bench points. That is the second-most by a Musselman team at Arkansas. The most was 67 bench points vs Mississippi Valley State (the 2020-21 season opener) in Coach Muss’ second season.
Information from Arkansas Communications is included in this story.
