Wagner assumes point and leads Razorbacks to win at Rupp for ROW honors

DJ Wagner's second-half surge not only helped propel the Arkansas Razorbacks to a much-needed 89-79 win over the Kentucky Wildcats on Saturday night in Rupp Arena, it also marked his emergence into the teams point 0-guard role and earn him Razorbacker of the Week honors.

Since assuming full-time point-guard duties with the season-ending injury to freshman point guard Boogie Fland two weeks ago, Wagner has scored in double digits twice over the past seven days. He put up his best performance in conference play so far this season by scoring 16 of his 17 total points in the second half against his former team while also dishing out a season-high eight assists and one turnover in the game.

"Maybe just finding my teammates when they go (to the basket)," Wagner said. "They made it easy for me...just by catching it and just making plays off my pass. So, I pass it off really to all my teammates."

Arkansas took a one-point lead into halftime against the high-powered Wildcats, but Wagner stepped up his shooting in the second half to help Arkansas take command of the game. Overall, he made 7-of-13 shots from the field and hit two of his four attempts from behind the three-point arc. Wagner also contributed three rebounds to the winning cause.

In last weekend's loss to Oklahoma, Wagner had 13 points to go with five assists and four rebounds.

"My teammates and my coaches just tell me to stay confident," Wagner said. "Just put on one shot and you know forget about the last shot.

"That's what comes to the game of the basketball. You're not gonna make every shot. So just keep playing and just focus on other things. That's something coach would always try to emphasize. If you're not shooting well or if you're not making shots, don't let it mess you up so much that you start making bad plays on defense and stuff like that. So I just try to focus on defense more than anything and just help my team."