Arkansas Razorbacks 87, Alabama Crimson Tide 68: That Was Fun!

That game started out looking like a stereotypical college basketball big ugly. But after halftime, the Razorbacks came out and put on the best show we’ve seen in Bud Walton Arena this season as they cruised to an 87-68 win over Alabama.

Jaylen Barford ignited Arkansas’ big 24-6 run that blew the game open. He made a sharp fadeaway jumper, a tough layup, a long jumper, and converted an and-1 layup. Nine straight Arkansas points before Dusty Hannahs hit back-to-back threes, followed by an explosive alley-oop to Adrio Bailey and a fast break dunk by Barford, and the Bud Walton roof was officially raised.

Truly as fun a sequence as we’ve seen from Arkansas basketball in a long time.

It was all the better because Alabama came into the game as a decent opponent they were 6-2 in the SEC and an RPI in the top 75. Alabama is not a good offensive team, so if Arkansas was able to score, they were likely to win easily, and that’s what happened.

Alabama didn’t shoot the ball well. They shot 39.6% but also turned the ball over 18 times, coughing up 11 steals to the Razorbacks. They needed to keep the game slow, but Arkansas wasn’t having it.

Hannahs led with 19 points and Moses Kingsley scored 15 points with 6 rebounds. Kingsley was also 11-12 from the free throw line. Barford finished with 13, Daryl Macon scored 12 and Manny Watkins scored 10 (including making yet another three!).

This was a game Arkansas needed, especially coming off the disappointing performance at Oklahoma State. The team’s in a stretch when they really need to play well with a road game at Missouri coming up, followed by hosting Vanderbilt next week and traveling to LSU. These are games Arkansas needs before settling in with a tough close to SEC play.