Arkansas starts fast, hammers No. 20 Gators
Sonny Weems scored 17 points, and Arkansas raced to a 25-point halftime lead en route to an 80-61 victory over No. 20 Florida on Saturday.
Gary Ervin added 15 points and six assists for the Razorbacks, who gave coach John Pelphrey a win over mentor Billy Donovan. Pelphrey was an assistant for Donovan for seven years at Marshall and Florida. Arkansas led 46-21 after a nearly flawless first half.
The Razorbacks shot 58 percent in the half and turned the ball over only three times. An alley-oop dunk by Steven Hill gave Arkansas an 8-2 lead, and although Florida scored the next six points, the Razorbacks (16-5, 5-2 SEC) were setting the tone.
Streak starting to feel like old times for UConn
Connecticut’s current winning streak looks a lot like the ones the Huskies used to go on when they were among the nation’s top teams season after season.
The 60-53 victory over No. 18 Pittsburgh was Connecticut’s fifth straight and third in that span over a ranked team. A.J. Price has been the Huskies’ best player during the winning streak, and he was again against the Panthers, scoring 21 points and running the offense with five assists.
“I’m impressed, and I should be,” Price said of the winning streak, during which he has averaged almost 20 points, six assists and five rebounds. “It is impressive what we’re doing right now. We haven’t played at our peak, but we have shown you how good we can be. And we’ll get better and go from there.”
Texas’ bench time not long enough for Baylor
Damion James was aching to get off the bench. Baylor could only wish he had stayed there longer.
Benched at the start after a bad game in a blowout loss a few days earlier, James scored 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds as No. 10 Texas rallied to an 80-72 victory, the Longhorns’ 21st straight win over the No. 25 Bears.
Replaced in the lineup by Dexter Pittman, James didn’t stay on the bench for long, logging 34 minutes. His 11 points in the first half helped pull Texas (17-4, 4-2 Big 12) out of an early 14-point deficit. Then he delivered several big baskets and rebounds as the Longhorns put the game away late.
James said he expected to be benched after he was criticized by coach Rick Barnes for his poor defense.
“I deserved it,” James said. “It worked out. Me coming off the bench I think gave us a spark.”
