FAYETTEVILLE -- Blessed with the comforts of home and uncomfortably goaded by hard practices with a two-game losing skid to snap, the inspired Arkansas Razorbacks Saturday afternoon defeated 69-55 at Walton Arena a Dayton Flyers team far superior than those Clemson Tigers that defeated Arkansas by three in overtime Sunday in Clemson, S.C.
Dayton, 7-2, attained the NCAA Elite Eight last season and was one victory away from reaching the 2014 Final Four.
However after brief 4-3 and 6-5 leads Saturday, the Flyers were grounded by an Arkansas 18-5 run, trailed 40-23 at half and never played closer than down 11 in the second half they trailed as much as 20.
Scoring 18 points and just missing a double-double with nine rebounds, sophomore forward Bobby Portis offensively led the Razorbacks, upping their record to 7-2 going into a week of UA final exams before the Hogs play next Saturday night hosting Southeast Missouri State at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock.
Arkansas had lost consecutive road games to 14th-ranked Iowa State (95-77) and Clemson (68-65) before downing Dayton Saturday.
"It was a tough week to lose Thursday (Dec. 4) to Iowa State and then to come back and lose Sunday to Clemson," Portis said. "I just wanted to get that taste out of our mouths. That was a bad taste that we have had all week."
Portis headlined with 18 points but all agreed the Hogs prevailed more on what they did without the ball than with it.
"It was a good performance by our basketball team," Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said. "I was proud of our guys bouncing back from the tough loss at Clemson. Dayton is a very good basketball team."
Coach Archie Miller's Flyers started looking good in the second half, outscoring Arkansas 32-29. That proved way too little way too late.
"The first half was one you wanted to bottle up and continue to have," Anderson said. "Defensively we were really engaged. We were in the passing lanes and in position to help on defense and fix some things on defense, taking charges and rebounding the basketball."
The aggressive first-half defense carried over offensively, Anderson said.
"I thought we were on the attack offensively as well," Anderson said. "We pushed the basketball and got into our offense a little bit easier. Bobby had a phenomenal first half (14 first-half points on 7 of 9 from the field) and our guys did a good job of really going to him."
Most of the offense began with defense, Portis said.
"It was more defense than anything else," Portis said. "Our defense led to our easy baskets."
Anderson shook up Saturday's starting lineup by inserting junior college transfer point guard Jabril Durham, nine points including a game-opening 3-pointer, for senior guard Ky Madden and starting junior forward Jacorey Williams, four points and three assists in the first half and six points, six rebounds and three steals for the game, in place of senior forward Alandise Harris.
"I thought they brought a little freshness to that starting lineup," Anderson said. "Jacorey's energy was contagious out there. Very, very active. Of the 15 field goals we had in the first half we had 12 assists has and the had three of them. That tells you how he was impacting the game. I thought Jabril came out and hit a shot and that did so much for his confidence and defensively he did a lot of good things as well."
Anderson said he was pleased not just with the new starters but how Madden, 12 points, including 8 of 8 free throws with two big ones answering Dayton's run to down 11 with 2:41 left and Harris, five points, three rebounds and a blocked shot, responded off the bench.
"It was a team victory," Anderson said.
Moses Kingsley, the 6-10 sophomore, got the most fan notice off the bench, augmenting two big shot-blocks and four rebounds in 11 minutes with a rebound on end taking it coast to coast for a layup on the other for his second and final basket in three shots.
"I thought Moses was phenomenal," Anderson said.
Guard Jordan Sibert led Dayton matching Portis' 18, including 10 of Dayton's meager 23 first-half points.
"Credit Arkansas," Miller said of the Razorbacks' first-half grounding of his Flyers. "Very difficult style on both sides of the ball. They are going to have a heck of a season. That's one of the best passing and movement teams I've seen in a long time. Our inability to take care of the ball for much of the first half really kind of took it out of us. The second half we were much more of ourselves and played a much better game."
Miller was asked if he had seen many 6-11 players like Portis able to burst inside and dunk on one possession then step back and swish a jumper on the next.
"Yeah," Miller replied. "They're all playing in the NBA. Maybe one day he'll be there as well."
Sports on 12/14/2014