FAYETTEVILLE -- Putting the Southeastern Conference's best big man on the same Red team with the Arkansas Razorbacks' best point guard, a high-scoring freshman guard and a blue-collar returning sophomore forward proved too much for the White team Friday night in the team's annual Red-White intrasquad game at Bud Walton Arena.
Other than a 2-2 tie, the Red team led every minute of the first half. The lead was just 43-41 with 2:45 before it advanced to 56-43 at the intermission and finished at 105-82.
Preseason All-SEC center Daniel Gafford, point guard Jalen Harris, sophomore forward Gabe Osabuohien and freshman guard Isaiah Joe, out of Fort Smith Northside, led the Red. Harris redshirted last season but practiced with the team after transferring from New Mexico.
Hitting 9 of 14 threes, Joe led all scorers tallying 31 points.
Gafford scored 24 and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds, leading the Red to 47-32 rebounding domination. Osabuohien nearly double-doubled with 20 points and eight rebounds.
Scoring 16 points, Harris dealt a game-high 10 assists. He dealt several to Gafford for dunks.
"Jalen Harris is a guy we talked about as a pass guard first," said Arkansas head coach Mike Anderson. "I thought between him and Gabe those guys did a good job of finding him (Gafford)."
Anderson said Joe Kleine, the former Arkansas great center and longtime NBA center and later a Little Rock assistant coach, helped Gafford as one of Friday's honorary Red-White coaches, along with former Razorbacks Charles Balentine, Corey Beck and Elmer Martin.
"I thought, in the first half, Daniel was playing too far from the basket and the double teams were getting to him," Anderson said. "In the second half, he played closer.
"At halftime, Joe was the one to say, 'Hey, big fella, you have to get down in that paint and go to work, man.'"
Anderson was asked if he thought the Red alignment might run away with the game.
"No. You look at halftime, it was much closer than the score indicates," Anderson said. "The Red team, all of a sudden, they had a nice little spurt there, and I thought the White ran out of gas.
"You do expect with Daniel and Jalen and a guy like Gabe that you have more seasoned guys and, then of course, with Isaiah and the way he's playing, shooting it really well like he's shooting in practice, they would do well, but I didn't think it would be like that."
Junior returning starting forward Adrio Bailey and sophomore junior college transfer guard Mason Jones led the White team, scoring 22 points each. Jones only scoring five in the second half after 17 in the first.
Freshman guard Desi Sills, of Jonesboro, scored 16 White team points with eight assists and four steals. He also drew Anderson's praise.
The next two Friday nights at 7 p.m. at Bud Walton, the Razorbacks will play exhibition games against small colleges Tusculum and Southwest Baptist.
The Razorbacks officially open their season on Nov. 9, meeting the Texas Longhorns at the Army's Fort Bliss base in El Paso, Texas.
Sports on 10/21/2018