Vanderbilt Commodores at Arkansas Razorbacks

Portis scores 32 points, Arkansas beats Vanderbilt 82-70

The Arkansas sophomore is perfectly comfortable, however, letting his growing list of achievements make his case as one of the Southeastern Conference's best.

Portis continued his emergence on the national stage with a season-high 32 points and the No. 23 Razorbacks won their seventh in a row, beating Vanderbilt 82-70 on Saturday.

He also finished with 11 rebounds, including nine on the offensive end.

"Bobby Portis was just active all night," Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said. "He was the Bell cow; he was the guy we went through."

Michael Qualls added 20 points for Arkansas, while Ky Madden added eight points, six assists and three steals in front of a season-high of 16,049 in Bud Walton Arena.

While the Razorbacks celebrated their hot start, Vanderbilt's four-game winning streak came to a sudden halt.

And that was just fine with Portis, who had a point to prove against another of the SEC's best big men in Jones.

"People say (Jones is better) a lot, so I had to do something to shut that up," Portis said. "Just my friends talking smack; I had to shut them up."

The Razorbacks led by as many as 10 points in the first half, and they matched that at 49-39 early in the second half after a 3-pointer by Anthlon Bell.

"That's Arkansas basketball right there," Qualls said. "I feel everybody was engaged, everybody was locked down, especially in the first half for a span of time. They didn't have (anybody) to throw the ball to."

Despite shooting 66.7 percent (16 of 24) in the second half, Vanderbilt was unable to cut Arkansas' lead to fewer than five points after that.

"I thought there were some things we did poorly," Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said. "Obviously, defending Portis was one of them. And our ball care, especially to start the game, was brutal."

WILLIAMS' IMPACT

Arkansas forward Jacorey Williams played a season-high 30 minutes off the bench, finishing with 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting. The junior had eight points in the first half, including back-to-back baskets to counter a pair of 3-pointer by Fisher-Davis.

TIPS-INS

Vanderbilt: The Commodores entered the game as the top shooting team in the SEC, having hit 50 percent of their shots this season. However, flustered by Arkansas' tenacious defense, Vanderbilt was only 10 of 26 (38.5 percent) in the first half before improving in the second half and finishing 26 of 50 (52 percent) for the game.

Arkansas: Portis, who is third in the SEC with 17.1 points per game, has now scored at least 20 points six times this season. He's scored in single digits only once, a six-point effort against North Texas on Nov. 28.

UP NEXT

Vanderbilt returns home to face Georgia on Wednesday night.

Arkansas is at Tennessee on Tuesday night.

How can I watch Vanderbilt vs. Arkansas?

• TV Channel: Vanderbilt at Arkansas 2021 College Basketball, week 9, is broadcasted on SEC Network.
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