FAYETTEVILLE— Five Razorbacks scored in double figures and the Arkansas women’s basketball team defeated Arkansas-Fort Smith 92-62 in an exhibition game Wednesday night at Bud Walton Arena.
Makayla Daniels led the Razorbacks with 21 points and nine rebounds. Senior forward Erynn Barnum had a double-double with 14 points and 11 boards. Jersey Wolfenbarger (17), Samara Spencer (15) and Maryam Dauda (13) joined Daniels and Barnum with double-digit points.
“The shot distribution looks really good,” Arkansas coach Mike Neighbors said. “I want to see a number of our kids in double figures with shot attempts.”
The Razorbacks raced ahead to a 34-16 lead after the first quarter while shooting 50% from the floor, but then cooled off a bit. UAFS outscored Arkansas by two points in the second quarter and trailed 48-32 at the break.
“I think it was pace,” Neighbors said of what changed between the quarters, “I'm not going to blame it on conditioning yet. (Strength and conditioning coach) Tyler (Beckman) does a great job with us.”
The Razorbacks made 25 of 46 free-throw attempts. It’s an area Neighbors said his team will work on.
“We had a really unfocused free-throw shooting day,” he said. “And I let it go, and I'm sure that won’t happen again. There was a little groan in the locker room (after the game). We’ll be a little more focused when we practice free throws. We got there plenty of times, but we left 21 points out there. We can't do that when our conference and non-conference seasons get started.”
Neighbors said nerves may have contributed to some of the shooting woes from the stripe.
“First-game jitters,” Neighbors said. “I wrote a little note to each one of our players. A lot of first things, a lot of first times for kids putting the jersey on, a lot of first times for playing in front of crowd — just a lot of first times.
"There was a lot of nerves. I was pleasantly surprised our kids were nervous because that means it's important to them.”
Arkansas outscored the Lions by 14 in the second half. The Razorbacks never trailed, and the final margin was the team’s largest lead.
UAFS was led by 5-8 guard Aaliyah Prince, who scored 22 points and had a game-high 13 rebounds.
“I told her in the handshake line if she doesn't do that to everybody the rest of the year, I'm going to come down there and get her,” Neighbors said of Prince. “She was very impressive. We had as hard of a time guarding her as anybody we have guarded in the SEC.
"Thirteen rebounds — that's defensive rebounds — that's effort.”
The game did not count on either team’s official record. It was the second consecutive year the programs played an exhibition game against each other. Arkansas won 114-55 last year.
Arkansas begins its regular season Monday with a game at Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. on the UAPB Sports Network.