FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – An ambitious, frenetic road trip came to an end for Furman on Monday night at Bud Walton Arena, where the Paladins tried to keep up but mainly just kept the Arkansas Razorbacks in sight.

Khalif Battle scored 25 points and Chandler Lawson added 19 as Arkansas (6-3) pulled away to a 97-83 victory.

J.P. Pegues scored 21 points, all 10 of his foul shots and handed out six assists for Furman. Alex Williams scored 20 and buried 5/9 three-pointers.

Arkansas defeated Duke last Wednesday. Furman lost on a buzzer beater at Princeton and leading scorer Marcus Foster to injury on Saturday.

The Razorbacks built a 10-point lead late in the first half before buckets from Williams, Carter Whitt and Davis Molnar trimmed the deficit to 40-35 at intermission. Furman trailed 58-52 with under 12 minutes to play when the Razorbacks reeled off a 12-0 run, capped by five consecutive points from Battle, that pushed the margin to 70-52 with 9:51 to go.

The Paladins saw Arkansas increase the margin to 20 points and the Razorbacks continued to lead by 15 when J.P. Pegues was fouled on a three-point attempt with 1:38 left. Arkansas’ head coach was whistled for a technical foul and Pegues proceeded to drain five straight free throws. Pegues followed with two more free throws on the next possession, hit a triple, and converted on two trips to the line on Furman’s next possession to get the Paladins within 88-81 before the Razorbacks converted from the line and against the press to finish the game on a 9-2 spurt.

Arkansas shot .607 (37/61) overall and .421 (9/19) from long range. Furman (4-5) put up corresponding numbers of .384 (28/73) and .375 (12/32). The Paladins bettered the Razorbacks at the free-throw line. Both hit 15, but Furman took 20 and Arkansas 21.

It was the first game ever played between the two schools.

Battle and Lawson combined to go 15/21 from the field and 9/10 at the foul line while Trevon Brazile added 13 points and Devonte Davis pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds for the Razorbacks.

Williams’ 20 was a career best. Garrett Whitt scored 14 and Garrett Hien added 10 for the Paladins. 

Furman committed just 11 turnovers, as did Arkansas.

 Furman returns home on Saturday to play the Bob Jones Bruins in a 2 p.m. contest at Timmons Arena.

Take a look at the stats here.

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