Beyond the Box Score: Khalif Battle’s 42 points second-highest this century
Makhi Mitchell has been electric for the last 7 games. Now Khalif Battle is going off? Arkansas might be onto something here late in the season.
The Hogs took down Mizzou 88-73 today in a high-octane offensive game. For the first 3 minutes, Arkansas and Mizzou couldn’t buy a shot, but when they finally put one in the basket, it was off to the races.
Arkansas finished with 22-52 (48%) on the floor and 10-25 (40%) from downtown. Battle led the Hogs with a career-high 42 points while playing nearly the entire game. Mitchell was next with 13, marking his seventh game scoring double-digits in the last eight.
Sean East II was essentially the Tigers’ entire offense, scoring 33 points with nearly half (15) coming from the free throw line.
The Razorbacks out-rebounded Mizzou 33-27, but they surprisingly out-blocked Arkansas 4-2.
Arkansas will take on Vanderbilt on Tuesday in hopes of claiming its third SEC victory in a row.
Now, let’s take a look at Arkansas’ win over Mizzou:
Three-point differential
Arkansas was hot from beyond the arc, shooting 10-25 (40%). Khalif Battle accounted for 6 of those makes, with the other two belonging to Tramon Mark.
The real story, though, is Arkansas forcing Mizzou to settle from the three-point line. The Tigers aren’t great from distance and showed it today. Mizzou put up 19 shots, only knocking down 5.
Bench points and assists
Again, Makhi Mitchell came off the bench to have another great game, scoring 13 points with 3 assists and 6 rebounds. Layden Blocker and Jeremiah Davenport combined for another 9 points with an assist and 4 more rebounds. Arkansas out-scored Mizzou’s bench 22-7 and had 16 assists to their 6.
Man of fire
Khalif Battle not only had a career-high in points today, but he also carved out a place in the history books for himself. Battle scored the second-most points in a single game this century for the Hogs. His 42-point performance is only behind Rotnei Clarke’s 51-piece against Alcorn State in 2009, the all-time Arkansas record.
