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Pacific caught fire from deep but Arkansas weathers the storm

By Austin Farmer

Nov 18, 2024; Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA; Arkansas Razorbacks forward Adou Thiero (3) dunks the ball in the second half as Pacific Tigers forward Elias Ralph (2) defends at Bud Walton Arena. Arkansas won 91-72. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images
Nov 18, 2024; Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA; Arkansas Razorbacks forward Adou Thiero (3) dunks the ball in the second half as Pacific Tigers forward Elias Ralph (2) defends at Bud Walton Arena. Arkansas won 91-72. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images / Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images
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Arkansas had slight trouble putting away Pacific tonight, but it still won by nearly 20 points. The Hogs move to 3-1 after a 91-72 win.

Apparently, the Razorbacks played prime Steph Curry hiding under a Scooby-Doo villain mask for the middle 20 minutes of tonight's game. At one point, Pacific was hitting threes at over a 50 percent rate. It wasn't Arkansas's defense either. More than once, Tigers Jeff Koulibally threw up a prayer over 7-foot-2-inch center for scores.

It didn't matter, though. The Hogs were on fire tonight. Four players broke double-digit points, led by Adou Thiero. The Kentucky transfer produced some of the best highlight plays of the night with dunks, alley-oops, and even hitting from distance. Boogie Fland (20 points), Zvonimir Ivisic (15 points), and DJ Wagner (14 points) joined Thiero in the scoring frenzy. As a team, Arkansas shot 59.6 percent from the floor and 42.9 from deep.

On defense, Arkansas forced many bad shots. Ivisic was the only true big to play tonight with Jonas Aidoo and Trevon Brazile out, but he was dominant in the post with three blocks. The stat sheet only shows 10 steals for the Hogs but it feels off with how explosive they played tonight. At least 5 of those takeaways happened in the first 10 minutes, which led to a 27-11 start for Arkansas.

All things considered, it wasn't a bad performance for a team that played only seven guys. Of course, the team's longevity comes into question heading into the rest of the season. Hopefully, Arkansas can heal up before conference play starts.

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