FAYETTEVILLE — Many of the concerns raised in Arkansas' narrow season-opening win were erased Monday.
The Razorbacks easily beat Southern Illinois 90-65 in front of 4,270 at Bud Walton Arena. Arkansas improved to 2-0.
Dusty Hannahs made five 3-pointers and scored 19 points to lead the Razorbacks. After struggling from beyond the arc during the exhibition season, Arkansas made 13 of 23 3-point attempts against the Salukis.
"I think we're a good shooting team, and I thought we took rhythm shots," Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said.
"We've got multiple guys who can make shots, and that's what we saw tonight."
The Razorbacks made four consecutive 3-pointers to spark a 22-2 run late in the first half that put the game out of reach. Arkansas led 56-25 at halftime.
"That could have been a lot worse than it was at times," Southern Illinois coach Barry Hinson said. "... You could tell that we wanted to make sure that they had to make 3s in order to beat us. That was a heck of a game plan, wasn't it, because they made 3s and beat us."
Moses Kingsley added 15 points and 7 rebounds for the Razorbacks. Daryl Macon scored 12 points - all on 3-pointers - and C.J. Jones added 11 in his college debut.
Jaylen Barford and Arlando Cook each scored nine points.
"We were running the fast-break today and we got a lot of open shots, and were finding each other," Macon said. "When the offense goes, it just goes."
Arkansas made 49 percent (30 of 61) of its field goal attempts and held Southern Illinois to 37 percent (22 of 60).
"I thought it was a tremendous team effort by our basketball team, establishing defense is what we're going to hang our hats on," Anderson said. "I thought we dictated the first half and that was probably the best defense we've played this year. Our pressure defense sped them up."
The Salukis (0-2) never led after the game's second minute. Armon Fletcher scored 13 points to lead Southern Illinois, while Sean Lloyd and Leo Vincent added 10 apiece.
Thik Bol had 9 points and 12 rebounds for the Salukis.