The 3-pointer: Three takeaways from Alabama's win against Arkansas

For the third time since the 1986-87 season, Alabama is now a perfect 4-0 in conference games as it picked up its second-ranked road win of the season, downing No. 15 Arkansas 84-69.

Here are three takeaways from Wednesday's victory.

Just like it had to do on the road against Houston, Alabama had to weather multiple storms on the road against Arkansas.

The Razorbacks had multiple opportunities to trim the Crimson Tide's lead or take a lead of their own but two massive scoring runs by Alabama allowed it to secure a crucial road win on Wednesday.

The first was the 11-4 scoring run to begin the second half. Alabama went 5-for-7 shooting during the run which gave the team its first double-digit lead of the game. The second run came four minutes later where Alabama went on an 11-0 run which gave the Crimson Tide another double-digit lead after Arkansas closed the deficit down to just two points.

"I told them this was a game of runs," Alabama head coach Nate Oats said. "We just had to get back to getting stops and taking care of the ball on offense. We just settled down a little bit. We came out and got stops, hit some big shots."

There are slow starts to games and then there's the start to Brandon Miller's night on Wednesday.

The scintillating freshman was anything but against the Razorbacks as not only did Miller not score a point during the first 20 minutes of play, he didn't register a shot. It was an odd start for the reigning SEC Freshman of the Week who scored a team-high 19 points against Kentucky.

In the second half, Miller finally got on the scoresheet tallying 14 points on 3-of-4 shooting. The 6-foot-9 forward credited his teammates for helping him find his rhythm, but according to Oats, Miller's performance shows how much the freshman has grown since the beginning of the season.

"They did a really good job on Brandon Miller for most of the game and then he shook loose at the right time," Oats said. "I think he's grown up. In the past when he couldn't get his shot, he'd get a little frustrated, but when they're going to play him like that, it opens up the rest of the floor for everybody else."

With Miller just nonexistent on the offensive end of the floor in the first half, Alabama turned to Mark Sears and Noah Clowney to carry the load.

Sears has proven to be a consistent offensive threat for Alabama scoring 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting in the first half. Sears' first-half performance was his ninth game out of his last 10 where he has scored 10 or more points. The junior guard would finish with a game-high 26 points on 7-of-16 shooting.

"I'm just out there having fun and playing with my teammates," Sears said. "With Brandon on the floor, he draws so much attention. I was just doing my job to try and bring the attention off of him."

Sears didn't have to do it all by himself in the second half as Clowney quickly found his shooting stroke in the final 20 minutes of the game scoring 12 of his 15 points in the second half. During Alabama's 11-4 run to begin the second half, the freshman forward recorded nine points in 3:20 which propelled the team to its largest lead of the night.

"Clowney is not scared of much," Oats said. "He's stepped up in big games. ... I thought he has been shooting it well since we got into conference play. I just told him, 'If you're open and your feet are set, don't hesitate to let it go.'"