Arkansas beats Stephen F. Austin with strong second half

Arkansas' Manny Watkins drives for a shot during a game against Stephen F. Austin on Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016, in Fayetteville.
Arkansas' Manny Watkins drives for a shot during a game against Stephen F. Austin on Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016, in Fayetteville.

— Arkansas overcame a sloppy first half and pulled away after halftime to beat Stephen F. Austin 78-62 Thursday in front of 4,705 at Bud Walton Arena.

The Razorbacks (5-1) opened the second half with a 13-3 run and never looked back after leading 34-28 at halftime.

Dusty Hannahs scored 11 of his game-high 15 points in the second half as Arkansas built a lead as big as 23 points. Moses Kingsley added 12 points - including 10 after halftime - and 6 rebounds.

"I thought they did a good job of mixing up their defense early on and it took us a little while to make that adjustment," Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said. "Once we did in the second half, I thought we did a much better job of attacking them inside, which is where we had an opportunity to score."

The Razorbacks made 50 percent (28 of 56) of their field goal attempts and were 19 of 23 at the free-throw line. Arkansas scored 29 points off 21 Stephen F. Austin turnovers.

Anderson said Arkansas' defense had 37 pass deflections.

"We got punched in the mouth to start the second half and we never responded," Stephen F. Austin coach Kyle Keller said. "That's a typical 40-minutes-of-heck basketball team, and they just kept coming at us, and then I thought Coach Anderson made some great adjustments against our zone defense."

Arkansas led by as many as 14 points in the first half. The Lumberjacks (2-3) kept the game close by forcing 10 first-half turnovers, but the Razorbacks committed only three after halftime.

"In the first half we were real careless with the basketball," Anderson said. "It was a tale of two halves."

Ten of Arkansas' 12 players scored. Dustin Thomas and Anton Beard each had nine points, while Manny Watkins and Jaylen Barford scored eight apiece.

Ivan Canete scored 14 points to lead Stephen F. Austin and Kevon Harris added 11.

The Razorbacks improved to 52-2 under Anderson in home games against nonconference opponents. Arkansas is scheduled to play again at 7 p.m. Saturday against Austin Peay (4-3).

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