TULSA — After a back-and-forth affair through most of the first half, a 14-2 run gave Oklahoma a 12-point lead over Arkansas heading into halftime.

But Porter Moser and the players knew it wasn't over yet. That was quickly proven true, when the Razorbacks scored six points in the first minute of the second half to cut the Sooners' lead to six points.

Now, Oklahoma had to respond. At the center of that response was Javian McCollum.

The OU guard came down and made a 3-pointer for the Sooners' first points of the half. On the next possession he was fouled on a 3-pointer, making all three free throws. That trip to the charity stripe pushes things back to the Sooners, who went on an 11-0 run to extend the lead to 19 points.

Each time the Razorbacks appeared to build momentum, the Sooners had an answer. That proved to be the difference, as the Sooners left the BOK Center on Saturday with a 79-70 win over the Razorbacks.

From the 16:41 mark of the second half until the final minute, the Razorbacks never got closer than 12 points.

"I thought that was a big key," Moser said after the game. "... (Arkansas has) been down before. They keep battling back. We knew that. They cut it to, I think, six (points). I was debating about whether to call timeout or not. I trusted them to get some stops. Then we got it back up to 10 or 12 again. Those guys have been doing that, bouncing back.

"I have to credit our guys for settling down and getting some stops. We knew Arkansas was going to keep fighting. And they did. They play so hard. We knew that, at halftime, (we) had a lot of basketball left."

Neither team gained much of an advantage through most of the first half. Through the first 15 minutes, the biggest lead by either team was four points and it was tied 23-23 with just under five minutes to go.

The Sooners have proven a few things throughout this 9-0 start to the season. They've found different ways to win, whether that's coasting to easy victories or having to respond to opposing runs and make plays at critical times. Against Arkansas, they continued to take punches and then delivered a few of their own.

Here's a look at the takeaways and notes from another statement win by the Sooners:

The former Siena guard continues to make plays when the Sooners needed it. In the first half after Arkansas took a 10-6 lead, McCollum made a 3-pointer, found John Hugley for a layup and then made a layup of his own for a mini 7-0 run, giving the lead back to OU.

And, of course, his six-straight points in the second half was enough to hold Arkansas off

"(Arkansas) came back and they did what we thought, and then for him to hit a 3 like that, score (six) straight, shows us how much he means to us," Moser said. "Those were big points when they were making a run to start the second half."

The national attention surrounding McCollum has grown through the first few weeks of the season, and he delivered again in front of an ESPN2 audience with 20 points, five rebounds, four assists and a steal. He's established himself as the leader of the team, and that has the Sooners in a good spot.

"He controls the tempo of every game," OU center Sam Godwin said. "He's the head of our snake offensively and he's a great leader for us. It's just the work that he puts in every day, it's not really a surprise to any of the guys in the locker room. We see him getting shots before practice, after practice. This dude just loves the game, so seeing him do what he does is not really a surprise to us."

For McCollum, he welcomes the attention the Sooners are starting to generate.

"That's what we want," McCollum said. "We want to be the best, we want to beat the best. That's what you want to ask for. That's what it takes to win a national championship. You want that target on your back. You want to go out there with knowing that those teams respect you at a high level, because we're going out there competing at a high level every night."

OU may not have held a lead had it not been for its defense.

The Razorbacks scored just 25 points in the first half while shooting just 8 of 27 (29.6%) from the floor and 3 of 11 (27.3) from the free throw line. The Sooners, in particular, did a good job of limiting star forward Trevon Brazile scoreless for the entire game. Milo Uzan led the effort with three steals, and the Sooners scored 13 points off of 13 Arkansas turnovers. Despite a few late buckets in garbage time, the Razorbacks shot just 40% from the floor and scored a season-low 70 points.

Moser has consistently preached for the Sooners to play faster on offense, but not at the sake of sacrificing their defensive intensity. So far this season, the Sooners' defense has been a huge part of their success.

"We always talk about our defense," McCollym said. "We want our defense to lead to offense and I think we did a pretty good job of it. But we could still do more. We could box out more, we could get out on transition on the offensive end. But I think we did a good job."

— Christmas might be just a couple weeks away, but inside the BOK Center it was foul season. The teams combined for 42 fouls, including six technicals, and 59 total free throws (OU made 22 of 28, Arkansas made 28 of 31).

Two of the technicals were charged in quick succession to Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman, who was ejected early in the second half. He was also ejected when the two teams met in 2021.

— The offensive improvement for Otega Oweh appears to be real. He finished with 14 points on 6 of 7 shooting and a 2 of 2 from the 3-point line, including a crucial triple in the second half to halt an Arkansas run.

Oweh, who's scored in double digits in all but one game this season, leads the team in scoring (15.2 points per game) and has made 9 of 11 3-pointers on the season.

— Rebounding continues to be an area of strength for the Sooners, who came into the game with an average rebounding margin of 9.2. They dominated the rebounds against Arkansas, snagging a 33-25 advantage. Rivaldo Soares led the team with seven rebounds.

— The Sooners' offense shot an efficient 51 percent from the floor (25 of 49) and 38.9% from the 3 (7 of 18).

— Up next: Green Bay next Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Lloyd Noble Center.