FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas got a career-best night from sophomore guard Keyon Menifield Jr. in just his third game as a Razorback in a 106-90 win over UNC Wilmington.
Menifield scored 32 points which is the best in his career. His previous best was 27 points at Washington last season against Oregon. In the win Saturday, Menifield was 8-of-14 from the field, 3-of-7 from behind the 3-point line, 13-of-17 at the free throw stripe, four rebounds and five assists. On Menifield's five assists, three were lobs and Eric Musselman talked about his prize guard having this kind of chemistry after just three games.
"I think he’s just an innate baller, you know?," Musselman said. "You could probably throw him on any team tomorrow and he would figure it out. Sometimes there are guys like that. He’s got unbelievable court awareness.
"We need him to practice a little bit harder. We need him to improve in some areas. But his teammates really like him. They like playing with him, and you can see that. And we like coaching him. He’s got a great spirit about himself. And yeah, the assists both with him … I thought Devo (Davis) played great, I thought T-Mark played great. I thought they were really efficient. Devo’s six assists and Keyon’s five, 11 out of that spot is important for us."
It seems like with the addition of Menifield the Hogs are winning the hustle plays and he has a quick twitch that helps ignite the offense.
"He is so quick with the ball," Musselman said. "He's got great basketball IQ. He sees plays before they happen. Which back to the lobs, he just naturally sees plays develop. And we felt that way when we recruited him. I was kind of amazed as a freshman how he could read the second and third line of the defense. He's really good in transition too. He does make us a much different team that plays with much different pace.”
As Musselman noted, Davis played his best game of the season. He finished with 14 points including 3-of-5 from behind the 3-point line. He also had six assists, a half dozen rebounds and three steals. Tramon Mark chipped in 18 points. Trevon Brazile added 12 points and a team-high eight boards. Musselman got very good play off the bench from Jalen Graham who had 16 points and six rebounds.
"I think we’re getting better," Musselman said. "I was happy tonight offensively. It’s hard in the college game to score 106 points. UNCW is really talented team. I mean, they have two high, high level players. I thought we did a really, really good job for most of the game defensively. Obviously we’ve got to get better [at] defensive rebounding.
"It was a good way to end the non-conference. Obviously we see the impact that Keyon can have, and we’re a different team with his energy out there and his basketball IQ. We missed him the games he wasn’t a part of our team. We recruited him with the thought he could score and also. I didn’t think he hunted his shots tonight, which you really don’t say that about a player that scored 32. I thought all of his shots were great, and 17 free throws attempted is a lot. Super excited about only eight turnovers and only two in the second half. So really excited about how we took care of the ball against a team that does create turnovers."
Arkansas shot 52% from the field while holding UNCW to 42. The Hogs knocked down 35% of their shots from distance. Arkansas outrebounded UNCW 40-35. Arkansas dominated the paint outscoring its opponent 50-30. Musselman had talked about how UNCW had a deep team and that was demonstrated by bench points as they topped the Hogs 47-27 in that area even with Graham's scoring outburst.
Guard Khalif Battle injured his ankle on Saturday, but Musselman had a promising report afterward and even addressed his availability for the SEC opener.
"He sprained his ankle," Musselman said. "He was deemed available if needed. Yeah, I think if they told me at halftime, he is available as needed, I would expect him to be ready to go on Monday. Could be wrong. I've been wrong a lot."
Arkansas (9-4) will open SEC play on Saturday at home against Auburn (10-2) at 1 p.m. and televised on ESPN2. UNCW (9-3) was topped by Trazarien White with 28 points, Shykeim Phillips added 25 and KJ Jenkins 10. Eric Van Der Heijden topped all players with 11 boards while also chipping in five points.
Photos Courtesy of Craven Whitlow CW3 Sports Action
