After an eight-day break for final exams, one never knows how a team will respond. Sometimes playing well is out of the question and a win is all that can be expected. The Arkansas Razorbacks did defeat Texas-San Antonio, 67-42, Wednesday at Walton Arena, but first-year head coach John Pelphrey would have liked a bit cleaner game. “ Tonight we were not where we need to be, ” Pelphrey said. “ The challenges are only going to get tougher. ” Pelphrey said the key to improvement for this team is to clean up their turnovers and foul less on defense. Still the Hogs are 8-1 on the season with five more opportunities to earn victories before opening their Southeastern Conference slate on Jan. 10 at Auburn.

PLAY OF THE GAME The Razorbacks came out of halftime fired up and if their 35-18 lead over UTSA wasn’t enough, they exploded for a 9-0 run.

Stefan Welsh set up the play of the game with a steal, which he quickly fed up court to Patrick Beverley.

On the left wing, Beverley made eye contact with Sonny Weems, who was sprinting up the right baseline. Beverley lofted a high alley-oop pass that Weems snared with his right hand and guided down to the rim for a thunderous dunk and a 39-20 lead with 18: 58 to play.

PLAYER OF THE GAME Patrick Beverley hit only 3 of his 10 shots, but he showed just how good a player he is even on a cold night by picking up 13 rebounds and dishing out 5 assists, while still scoring 10 points. He also had no turnovers. It was the second double-double of Beverley’s career. He had 20 points and 10 rebounds last March against Vanderbilt. CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARDS At 6-2 Patrick Beverley is one of the smaller Razorbacks, but he stood tall for the Hogs in the rebounding category. Beverley tracked down a careerhigh 13 rebounds, which outdid his taller teammates by far. STAT OF THE GAME The Razorbacks forced 22 turnovers, but they gave every one of them back to UTSA with 20 turnovers of their own. The Razorbacks work too hard to gain their turnovers just to hand the ball back to their opponents.

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UNSELFISH With 14: 54 to play, Stefan Welsh gave the ball a hard push up the floor and found Patrick Beverley open in the left corner. Beverley could have thrown up an off-balance shot, but he zipped it to a trailing Sonny Weems, who stroked a 3-pointer for a 51-23 lead with 14: 54 to play.

DEBUT Nate Rakestraw, a 6-4, 206-pound freshman from Springdale Har-Ber High, made his first appearance as a Razorback Wednesday night against UTSA. Rakestraw came in after the 8-minute media timeout. He missed the Hogs’ first eight games with broken bone in his hand.

FIRST START Arkansas coach John Pelphrey has bragged on the intense defensive play of Forrest City freshman Marcus Britt and Wednesday he opted to reward him by starting him against Texas-San Antonio in place of Patrick Beverley.

That meant three of the Hogs’ top four scorers — Beverley (13. 1 ppg. ), Darian Townes (11. 9 ppg. ) and Gary Ervin (9. 9 ppg. ) — came off the bench.

UP NEXT The Razorbacks head to Norman, Okla., Saturday for their first road game of the year against the Sooners. Tipoff is set for 2 p. m. and the game will be televised by ESPN 2. John Pelphrey said he is excited about the opportunity and challenge the road game has to offer his team. “ To me if you really want to do something as a team, you go to someone else’s back yard and take it to them, ” Pelphrey said. “ We’re supposed to win our games at home. We get to go play a very good Oklahoma team and see how we do. ” Oklahoma is 7-3 on the season and is smarting from a 66-62 loss to Stephen F. Austin last Saturday. The Sooners’ other two losses on the season came against No. 3 Memphis, 63-53, and No. 24 Southern Cal, 66-55. Blake Griffin leads the Sooners in scoring and rebounding with 13. 2 ppg. and 8. 0 rpg. Tony Crocker averages 12. 1 ppg and Longar Longar averages 11. 9 ppg.