FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas gave the maligned SEC a resounding victory over another power conference team as the Razorbacks beat Wake Forest 83-53 Wednesday night in Walton Arena before an announced crowd of 9,107.
It was the first time the Razorbacks (2-0) had beaten the Atlantic Coast Conference's Demon Deacons in the teams' four meetings in Arkansas.
Game sketch
RECORDS Arkansas 2-0. Wake Forest 2-1.
STARS Arkansas senior guard Ky Madden (11 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists), sophomore forward Bobby Portis (10 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks, 2 steals) and junior guard Jabril Durham (6 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds).
TURNING POINT Arkansas outscored Wake Forest 15-0 over a 6:40 span of the first half — including two three-point baskets by Anton Beard — to take a 25-10 lead at the 9:43 mark.
KEY STAT Arkansas outscored Wake Forest 33-16 in points off turnovers.
UP NEXT Arkansas plays Delaware State at 7 p.m Friday in Walton Arena.
"This was a beatdown," Wake Forest Coach Danny Manning said. "There's no other way to look at it."
Twelve Razorbacks scored, led by senior guard Ky Madden with 11 points.
"It was real fun just to get out there and play with freedom and leave it all out there on the floor," Madden said.
Arkansas senior forward Alandise Harris, sophomore forwards Bobby Portis and Moses Kingsley, junior forward Jacorey Williams and freshman guard Anton Beard each scored 10 points.
"There's a lot of balance on this basketball team, and I thought it was on display tonight," Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson.
The Razorbacks also displayed a lot of defense, led by sophomore walk-on guard Manny Watkins. The son of Arkansas assistant coach Melvin Watkins didn't attempt a shot in 19 minutes but had 5 steals and 4 rebounds to go with 2 made free throws.
"Manny was blue-collaring it," Anderson said. "He doesn't worry about scoring. He's an ego-less guy and just goes out and plays."
Arkansas took control in the first half by outscoring the Demon Deacons 15-0 over a 2:47 span to move ahead 25-10 at the 9:43 mark.
The Razorbacks' run included dunks by junior guard Michael Qualls and Williams with lob passes by point guard Jabril Durham, a junior college transfer who had 6 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds.
Beard also hit two three-point baskets to fuel the scoring spurt, and Wake Forest helped with five turnovers, including four steals by Watkins.
Kingsley blocked a shot that Madden saved from going out of bounds and tossed over his head back to Kingsley, who got the ball to Williams who passed to Beard for the run-capping three-pointer.
"Arkansas came out and they delivered the first blow, and we didn't handle it well and obviously we didn't recover," Manning said. "They played their style of play. They created turnovers, they scored off turnovers, and we didn't do a good enough job of taking care of the basketball."
The Razorbacks scored 33 points off the Demon Deacons' 20 turnovers.
"I thought our defense was locked in from start to finish," Anderson said. "Our guys were just relentless."
Junior forward Devin Thomas led Wake Forest (2-1) with 19 points and 10 rebounds. He made 8 of 11 shots, but the rest of the Demon Deacons combined to go 11 of 48.
While Arkansas shot 52.5 percent from the field (32 of 61), including 7 of 15 three-pointers, Wake Forest shot 32.2 percent (19 of 59) and was 1 of 18 on three-point attempts.
"You can chalk it up to whatever," Manning said. "The results are 1 of 18. This is a results business, and we didn't get it done tonight."
The Demon Deacons outrebounded their first two opponents -- North Carolina-Ashville and Tulane -- by a plus-21.0 average, but the Razorbacks matched Wake Forest in rebounds with 36 each.
"You saw a group that rebounded the ball by committee," Anderson said. "Wake Forest shoots and go gets it, but we did a good job of just staying in the ballpark and keeping it even for the game."
Portis led the Razorbacks with seven rebounds -- he also had an alley-oop assist on a Qualls' dunk -- but 12 Razorbacks had at least one rebound.
"The guards helped us out," Kingsley said. "We tried to box out their big men, and our guards ran in and got the ball. It was teamwork."
Arkansas led by as many as 20 points in the first half before Wake Forest pulled within 44-30 at halftime.
The Demon Deacons didn't pull closer than 14 points in the second half, when the Razorbacks led by as many as 35 points, 77-42 after a Harris layup with 6:15 left.
"It felt great to be able to win a game like that with your teammates and coaches that have been working hard since the summer to get to this point," Beard said. "We went out there and proved it tonight."
Sports on 11/20/2014