The Arkansas men’s basketball team finished off the non-conference portion of its schedule on Saturday night with a convincing 104-71 win over UTSA at Bud Walton Arena.
The Razorbacks head into Wednesday’s SEC opener at Texas A&M on a seven-game win streak, which equals the program’s longest under head coach Mike Anderson. The win also stretched Arkansas’ home win streak to 23 games, good for a tie for fourth-longest in the nation.
“This was the final non-conference game for us and I was very pleased with our effort,” said Mike Anderson. “We’re coming together on and off the court and the result of that has been good team basketball. Tonight we were very active on the defensive end and were able to set the tone early.”
The Hogs used 14 steals and a season-high 40 points off turnovers to make the game out of reach early.
Arkansas more than hit its season averages in both scoring and assists with their third 100-point performance of the seven-game win streak, marking the first time since 2000-01 an Arkansas team has scored 100 points three times in a season. Arkansas passed out 24 assists on its 40 made field goals with just seven turnovers, finishing with a 50 percent (40-80) clip from the field.
Freshman Bobby Portis recorded his second double-double of the season that featured 19 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. Portis finished a perfect 8-of-8 from the field to stretch his double figure streak to nine games, the longest streak by a Razorback this season. Joining Portis in double figures was junior Rashad Madden with 15 points, including 11 in the first half, and sophomore Michael Qualls, who added 11 points, five rebounds and a team-high four assists.
Arkansas was efficient in the first half, shooting 50 percent (23-46), passing out 15 assists with two turnovers and turning 15 UTSA turnovers into 22 points. The Razorbacks are now 10-0 when leading at the half this season.