NCAA News Wire

Defense comes through to lead No. 23 Arkansas past Georgia

ATHENS, Ga. — The message Arkansas head coach Mike Anderson gave his Razorbacks at halftime of Tuesday night’s SEC opener at Georgia was a simple one — get back to what they do best.

It was a point well taken.

After scuffling the first half, 23rd-ranked Arkansas picked up its defensive intensity in the second to ease past the Bulldogs 79-75 before a Stegeman Coliseum crowd of 7,937.

“Our defensive intensity is what improved in the second half,” Razorback sophomore Bobby Portis explained. “Coach told us to press more and start causing havoc and put pressure on top and it helped.”

There’s no question about that.

After watching the Bulldogs shoot 57.7 percent in the first 20 minutes, Arkansas held Georgia to just 34.5 percent in the second, holding on to the four-point win.

“The key like this is you want to be in the ball game (at halftime,” Anderson said. “There’s a lot of emotion coming into this game and they played with a lot of energy and made a lot of shots. In the second half, they didn’t make as many shots.”

Arkansas (12-2, 1-0) got its first road win in three attempts away from Bud Walton Arena, while the Bulldogs (9-4, 0-1) had their six-game winning streak snapped and lost for the first time at home after winning their first nine on their home court.

“You’ve got to be able to saddle up and do it for 40 minutes, not just 20,” Bulldog senior Marcus Thornton said. “We did pretty decent in the first half and in the second we had a couple of spurts, but it wasn’t enough.”

After leading by as many as 13 points, Georgia went cold midway through the second half, allowing Arkansas to jump in front 70-64 on a 3-pointer by forward Alandise Harris, followed by a jumper by guard Michael Qualls with just over four minutes to play.

The Bulldogs would cut the lead back to two, but would get no closer after Portis hit a shot in the lane to push the margin back to six.

Georgia had a chance with 51 seconds left to get the game within one possession but a 3-point shot by guard Kenny Gaines missed its mark, forcing the Bulldogs to foul. The Razorbacks hit their free throws, including two by Qualls with four seconds left to push the lead back to four.

Portis finished with 21 points to lead the Razorbacks, followed by Qualls with 17 and Harris with 15. Forward Nemi Djurisic topped Georgia with 16 points, followed by guard Juwan Parker and Thornton with 11 apiece, with Gaines and guard J.J. Frazier each chipping in with 10.

“That was high-level game, but you’ve got to give Arkansas a lot of credit,” Georgia head coach Mark Fox said. “I thought we played very hard but we didn’t get the stops that we needed to get. You can’t give up 50-plus from the field and expect to win against a good team.”

The Bulldogs didn’t help their cause with mistakes, either.

Georgia committed 17 turnovers, 11 in the first half while the Bulldogs once again struggled at the free-throw line, converting just 16 of 24 attempts. Arkansas, meanwhile, hit 11 of 13.

“It felt great for us to come in here and get the win,” Portis said. “This was a good win.”

Georgia never trailed the first half in building a 44-37 lead.

Credit Djurisic for that. The native of Montenegro, who came into play averaging 10.9 points per contest, hit that mark in the first half, scoring 11 points with four rebounds as the Bulldogs led by as many as 13.

It might have been worse if not for the play of Portis.

Portis tallied 15 points the first half with the next highest point total coming from Qualls, who chipped in with eight.

Eight different players scored in the first half for Georgia, which shot 57 percent (15 of 26) compared to 47.1 percent (16 of 36) for the Razorbacks, who were also outrebounded by the Bulldogs 18-12.

Of Georgia’s 15 first-half field goals, six were good for three points while Arkansas was just 2 of 7 from beyond the arc.

NOTES: Arkansas came into play Tuesday night leading