Category: Arkansas women’s basketball

Arkansas women’s basketball closes out 2023 with victory

Arkansas finished off 2023 with a 19-point victory over Incarnate Word. SEC play begins Thursday at Kentucky.

The final day of 2023 saw the Arkansas women get a victory over Incarnate Word at Bud Walton Arena, 67-48.

Taliah Scott continued her torrid scoring stretch, dropping 24 on the visiting Cardinals, while tallying a career high four assists and grabbed three rebounds.

Arkansas outrebounded UIW, 42-35, and logged 16 points off of turnovers compared to UIW’s nine.

“It wasn’t going to be pretty, for lots of reasons,” Arkansas head coach Mike Neighbors said. “We set them up for adversity with a really long break. They (UIW) had played some other teams close and we knew when we scheduled this game, it would be great to challenge our kids and see how they respond.”

Arkansas (12-3) will take a four-game winning streak into Thursday’s SEC opener at Kentucky.

Arkansas’ Taliah Scott officially the most decorated freshman in history

Only two players in Arkansas history have done what Taliah Scott has done. And she has three months, basically, of the season left.

Arkansas has never seen a player like Taliah Scott. Actually, few in the entire Southeastern Conference have ever seen a player like Taliah Scott.

The Razorbacks’ freshman guard was named SEC Freshman of the Week on Tuesday. Impressive in and of itself, but the wildest thing? It’s her fifth time earning the honor this year.

By the way, conference play hasn’t even begun yet.

Scott tied Arkansas’ record for most weekly freshman honors in women’s basketball history. She is coming off a week in which she averaged 21.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists in helping the Razorbacks to a perfect two-game showing in the West Palm Beach tournament.

The five-time record ties her teammate Saylor Poffenbarger and former Arkansas basketballer C’eria Ricketts.

Scott leads the SEC in scoring and is second in the nation in total points, third in free-throw makes and attempts, third in field-goal attempts and 3-point attempts and sixth in points per game.

Arkansas has won three straight games since a shock defeat at the hands of Arkansas-Pine Bluff on December 10. The Razorbacks have a final nonconference game New Year’s Eve at home against Incarnate Word before SEC play begins January 4 at Kentucky.

Arkansas wins second game of West Palm Beach trip

Arkansas was 2-0 against teams from Illinois in West Palm Beach before Christmas.

It didn’t take a buzzer beater to dispatch Illinois-Chicago on Thursday at the Massimino Center.

The Razorbacks got 26 points from superstar Taliah Scott and a superb effort from Saylor Poffenbarger to defeat UIC by 8.

Poffenbarger’s double-double (17 points and 11 rebounds) helped Arkansas return home with a 2-0 mark in the Sunshine State. It was Poffenbarger’s fifth of the season.

Scott hit 6 3-pointers, a career high, in the victory, which improved the team’s record to 11-3 on the year.

Samara Spencer had 13 points to contribute to the cause.

Arkansas will be back in action in over a week, when Incarnate Word comes to town for the final nonconference game of the year on December 31.

Tipoff is at 1:30 p.m. and will be streamed on SEC Network+.

Dauda’s buzzer-beater ends epic 60-59 win over Illinois

Bentonville’s Maryam Dauda sank a layup just before the buzzer Wednesday to lift the Arkansas women to victory.

Sophomore Maryam Dauda hit a layup with less than a second left on the clock Wednesday to propel the Arkansas women’s basketball team to a thrilling 60-59 win over Illinois in the first of two games being played at the West Palm Beach Classic in Florida.

Down by a point, the Razorbacks got the ball to junior playmaker Samara Spencer with nine seconds to play. The savvy guard then found Dauda open under the basket for the winning score.

Spencer and SEC scoring leader Taliah Scott each netted 17 points to pace Arkansas. Dauda, a 6-foot-4 Bentonville product, was 4 of 5 from the field and finished with nine points, four rebounds and two blocked shots.

Ironically, Spencer and Scott are both Florida natives and got to shine back in their home state.

“Happy for our Florida kids to come home again,” head coach Mike Neighbors said. “And with Sam making the right basketball play, and Maryam being ready, with her hands up ready to catch it and lay that thing in at the buzzer. It was really exciting.”

Arkansas jumped out to a 7-0 lead to start the game, but went on a three-minute drought, allowing Illinois to respond with a 6-0 run.

The teams then traded the lead throughout the first half. Graduate guard Makayla Daniels scored on a layup, then hit one of two free throws late in the half to send the Razorbacks to the locker room with a 31-28 lead.

“Faced a lot of adversity with foul trouble early, and not being able to knock down free throws when we needed them,” Neighbors said. “But we really battled. I though defensively we really locked in when we needed to.”

After Illinois opened the second half with five straight points, Arkansas reclaimed a 43-40 advantage midway through the third quarter, on back-to-back threes from Spencer and sophomore Saylor Poffenbarger. But the Fighting Illini bounced back with a 7-0 run to retake the lead once again.

Illinois actually outscored Arkansas 23-17 in the third quarter, taking a three point lead into the final stanza.

Scott converted on a driving layup to put the Hogs back ahead, until Illinois tied the game again with a jumper. The score was knotted at 55-55 with 4:12 remaining.

The Hogs held Illinois to 0-for-8 from the three-point line throughout the contest, but only converted 4-of-23 themselves.

Arkansas trailed 59-56 with three minutes to play, but got two free throws from Poffenbarger and a key block from Dauda down the stretch.

Poffenbarger got the final defensive rebound with nine seconds left and passed to Spencer, who made her way right to the basket and found Dauda for the game-winner.

Poffenbarger scored eight points, while pulling down a game-high 19 rebounds, in addition to two assists and two blocks. The 19 boards was her third most this season.

Arkansas will play Illinois-Chicago Thursday at 10 a.m. (CT) to wrap up the West Palm Beach Classic. The game will be streamed on FloHoops.

Arkansas women’s basketball preparing for West Palm Beach trip

Arkansas women’s basketball team is looking to build momentum heading into SEC play which begins January 4.

Mike Neighbors’ squad bounced back from a devastating home loss to UA-Pine Bluff by convincingly beating Samford on Saturday in North Little Rock in a prelude to the men taking on Lipscomb.

Now his team will embark on a two-game road excursion to West Palm Beach, Florida, where the Razorbacks will face Illinois and UIC on Wednesday and Thursday.

Arkansas (9-3) then will return home and play Incarnate Word on December 31st before beginning SEC play at Kentucky on Thursday, Jan. 4.

Both games will be held on Massimino Court at 10 a.m. and will be televised by FloHoops.

The court is named for Hall of Fame coach Rollie Massimino, who is most famous for winning the 1985 national championship with Villanova in a huge upset over Georgetown. He helped start Keiser University’s basketball programs, who play in the arena there.

Massimino was nearly hired over Nolan Richardson by Frank Broyles after that 1985 title but was never given a second interview.

Great Scott! Arkansas freshman makes history with SEC’s weekly award

Arkansas sharp-shooter Taliah Scott named Freshman of the Week for fourth time in a row.

Deja vu.

Arkansas freshman Taliah Scott has done it again.

For the fourth consecutive week, the former 5-Star McDonald’s All-American, has showcased her talents enough to be named SEC Freshman of the Week. Scott is the first women’s basketball player in league history to win the honor for four straight weeks.

The 5-foot-9, Orange Park, Fla., native has led the conference in scoring the entire season, thus far, scoring 24.5 points per game, and is the only SEC player scoring more than 20 points per game. She is averaging over five points more than LSU’s Aneesah Morrow, who is second on the list.

Scott is fifth nationally in scoring, and only trails Iowa’s Caitlin Clark for total points, with 269 through 11 games.

She also leads the SEC with 61 free throws made, as well as free throw attempts, field goal attempts, and 3-point attempts. She sits second in the NCAA in free throws made and attempted, third in field goal attempts and fourth in 3-point attempts.

Scott was red-hot in Thursdays’ 100-60 win over Louisiana Tech, scoring a game-high 29 points on 12-of-16 shooting from the field, and 5-of-8 from beyond the arc.

She followed that with 31 points and six rebounds in the Razorbacks’ 74-70 loss to Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Sunday.

Scott is now tied with Samara Spencer with four overall Freshman of the Week honors. Saylor Poffenbarger and C’eria Ricketts are tied for the school record with five weekly honors.

Arkansas will travel to Little Rock on Saturday to host Samford at Simmons Bank Arena, beginning at 12:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast on SECN+.

Arkansas women on “Next Four Out” of ESPN’s Bracketology

Arkansas is on the “Next Four Out” portion of ESPN’s Bracketology.

The Arkansas women’s basketball team may have a worse loss than the men, but they’re in better shape when it comes to NCAA Tournament projections, anyway.

The Razorbacks fell last time to Arkansas-Pine Bluff, a SWAC team projected to finish third in that perpetual one-bid league. Still, ESPN’s Charlie Creme didn’t knock Arkansas all the way out of his Bracketology.

Coach Mike Neighbors’ bunch made the “Next Four Out” group of teams in Tuesday’s update. Seven teams were slotted ahead of the Hogs but still short of the Dance, meaning Arkansas has plenty of work to do to make it.

Arkansas has four nonconference games remaining before SEC play begins Jan. 4 at Kentucky. League play is where the Hogs’ NCAA Tournament hopes will hang, that is assuming they don’t lose any more games they are supposed to win between now and then.

The “Next Four Out” spot is better than their male classmantes, which fell all the way out of Joe Lunardi’s same Bracketology on the men’s side.

UAPB women shock Arkansas on Sunday, 74-70

UAPB defeated the Arkansas women on Sunday in front of 3,330 fans in Bud Walton Arena.

Arkansas-Pine Bluff came into Bud Walton Arena unintimidated.

The Golden Lions left with a four-point victory and plenty of confidence for the remainder of the 2023-24 season.

Arkansas, meanwhile, was left to wonder what happened?

Taliah Scott’s game-high 31 points were not enough as the Razorbacks blew a 10-point halftime lead by only scoring 28 points total in the second half after scoring 27 in the second quarter alone.

The Razorbacks missed 10 of their last 11 shots and got outrebounded 52-35 while shooting 34 percent from the field.

UAPB was led by Zaay Green’s 21 points. Green is a former 5-star recruit who played at both Tennessee and Texas A&M before transferring to the Golden Lions.

Arkansas will be back in action next Saturday in North Little Rock, where it will take on Samford at 12:30 p.m. at Simmons Bank Arena as part of a doubleheader with the men’s team, who plays Lipscomb.

Arkansas dominates Lousiana Tech 100-60 on Wednesday night

Taliah Scott’s 29 points highlights offensive onslaught from Hogs, as they rolled over Louisiana Tech 100-60 on Wednesday night.

It was fun Wednesday night inside Bud Walton Arena if you were a Razorback fan. Five Hogs scored in double figures as Arkansas (8-2) cruised to a 100-60 win over Louisiana Tech (2-7).

[autotag]Taliah Scott[/autotag] led the Hogs in scoring, once again, pouring in 29 points on 12-16 (75%) shooting from the floor, including 5-8 (62.5%) from three. While Scott’s offensive performance may get most of the spotlight, [autotag]Mike Neighbors[/autotag] credited three veterans – [autotag]Makayla Daniels[/autotag], [autotag]Saylor Poffenbarger[/autotag] and [autotag]Samara Spencer[/autotag] – for their poise and focus entering the game.

“We don’t want to be that team that only plays to a certain standard based on what your opponent is ranked or something,” said Neighbors. “I also don’t try to fool our kids. I try to be as honest with them as I can. I knew that there was a potential for a letdown, but those three (Daniels, Poffenbarger and Spencer) had them ready to go at practice.”

The trio of Daniels, Poffenbarger and Spencer were able to bring that focus right into the game as they combined for 44 points – each scoring in double figures. Jenna Lawrence was the other Razorback with a double-digit scoring performance, adding 10 points of her own.

Arkansas will be back in action on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. as they host Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Coverage of that game can be found on the SEC Network.

No. 2 UCLA’s size too much for Arkansas on Sunday

The Bruins outrebounded Arkansas by 30, building a lead too large for the Hogs’ attempted fourth-quarter comeback.

UCLA looked like a team vying for a national championships. Arkansas looked like a team that will struggle to make the NCAA Tournament.

The second-ranked Bruins dominated Arkansas during a matinee Sunday, 81-66, a game in which the Razorbacks rarely looked like they belonged on the same floor.

UCLA does that to a lot of teams, of course. The Bruins entered second in the nation in rebounding margin, outboarding their opponents by 22 a game, and used that strength against an Arkansas bunch who have struggled on the glass for seemingly most of coach Mike Neighbors’ tenure.

The Bruins took care of things in the paint, outrebounded Arkansas by 30 and outscoring them down low by 18. That size helped UCLA to a lead as large as 30 in the third quarter.

Arkansas rallied a bit in the fourth as Taliah Scott scored 13 of her team-high 23 in the final 10 minutes to make the margin respectable.

The Razorbacks were projected as the last team in in ESPN’s Bracketology in its last update.