Men’s Basketball Rallies Late, Falls to Akron
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — A three-point barrage by visiting Akron handed Arkansas men’s basketball it’s first loss on Wednesday night by a score of 88-80 in Bud Walton Arena.
The difference was beyond the arc, where the Zips went 13-for-28, while the Razorbacks went 6-for-18 from deep. Moses Kingsley had his second-consecutive double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Anthlon Bell came off the bench to lead the team with 23 points, tying the second-highest scoring output of his career.
The visitors came out firing right out of the gate, hitting four threes in the first 4:48 to jump ahead to a quick 13-7 lead. After going down 13 at the 2:55 mark of the first half, the Razorbacks held the Zips scoreless for the remainder of the period and shortened the deficit to eight, 37-29, when the halftime buzzer sounded.
Six minutes into the second frame, Arkansas found itself down 49-39 when the team responded with an 8-0 run in 64 seconds. Two missed one-and-one’s by Akron opened the door for back-to-back threes by Dusty Hannahs and Bell, then Trey Thompson capped the burst with a layup to bring the score within two. But that’s the closest the hosts would get, as the score teetered back and forth over the last 13 minutes before settling on the eight-point difference.
Hannahs had another double-digit scoring effort, dropping 16 points in 30 minutes on the court. The junior went 5-for-11 from the field, including 1-for-4 from three, and 5-for-5 from the charity stripe. Manny Watkins also added 10 points, the first double-digit game of his career, on 4-for-6 field goal shooting. He also added two assists and one steal.
QUOTABLES
“Not many teams come in to Bud Walton Arena and take a win out of here, especially in non-conference play. Let’s give Akron some credit; they came with a game plan and part of that plan was to spread us out, move the ball and make shots. They made shots.” — Head coach Mike Anderson
“It just felt like a couple of times the crowd got into it and we cut the lead into two or four, but then we would have a foul and they hit their shots. We should have handled business on our home court but I have to give all due respect to Akron; we lost to a good team.” — Junior guard Dusty Hannahs
QUICK HITS
• Bell had the fifth 20-plus point effort of his career. It was his first since scoring 20 vs. Iona on Nov. 30, 2014.
• Kingsley has started the season with consecutive double-doubles. The last Razorback to do so was Marshawn Powell to begin the 2009-10 season.
• Arkansas lost despite having only eight turnovers, the Razorbacks were 6-0 last season when committing fewer than 10 giveaways.
• After having a Razorback hit five threes in a game twice all of last season (Bell twice), Arkansas has had players with five treys back-to-back in its first two games (Hannahs and Bell).
• The Razorbacks had two dunks in the game, one by Kingsley and one by Thompson, both in the first half.
UP NEXT
Arkansas continues preliminary play in the NIT Season Tip-Off, as Charleston Southern visits Bud Walton Arena on Friday, Nov. 20 for a 7 p.m. start.
