FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas took a four-game winning streak into Monday night’s matchup with Missouri State, but Razorbacks Coach John Pelphrey wasn’t pleased.

Pelphrey said Arkansas hadn’t been making progress at an acceptable pace.

The Razorbacks responded to his challenge, beating Missouri State 70-51 before 11, 956 fans at Walton Arena.

“I’m not saying this just because they did it to us, but that’s the best they’ve played this year, and I’ve seen every game,” Bears Coach Barry Hinson said. “I was impressed.”

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Arkansas committed 21 turnovers, but Pelphrey said a lot of that had to do with Missouri State’s physical defensive style.

“I didn’t feel we had as much carelessness as I’ve seen in other games,” Pelphrey said, recalling games in which the Razorbacks had 32 turnovers against Providence and 26 against College of Charleston. “There were times this year where you felt we didn’t really know what color jersey we had on.

“ This was a well-played game for us considering what we’ve been through.”

Missouri State (4-2 ) came into the game shooting 49. 2 percent from the field and hit 4 of its first 5 attempts against Arkansas, but finished at 36. 4 percent, including 7 of 32 in the second half.

“I thought we brought fatigue into it,” Pelphrey said. “I felt like the style of play won out.”

Arkansas (7-1 ) outscored Missouri State 13-2 over a 4: 44 span, including two alley-oop dunks by 7-0 center Steven Hill on assists from Gary Ervin and Patrick Beverley, to take a 57-42 lead with 11: 31 left.

“I think we got frazzled,” Hinson said. “We lost our composure.”

Missouri State didn’t pull closer than 12 points the rest of the game.

“Coach Pelphrey told us if we got the lead we had to stay hungry,” said Ervin, a senior guard who had 12 points, 4 assists and 3 steals. “It all starts on defense. We want to get our opponents tired to where they can’t knock down the shots they usually make.”

Missouri State finished 3 of 21 on three-point attempts.

“We beat a dead man by three shots,” Hinson said.

Senior forward Deven Mitchell led the Bears with 12 points and 5 steals.

Nine Razorbacks played between 14 and 34 minutes, and the team got 36 points and 21 rebounds from its bench.

“I think we wore them down,” Hill said. “We’re a deep team. We can run a lot of fresh bodies in and out.”

Arkansas scored 19 secondchance points thanks to 17 offensive rebounds.

Razorbacks sophomore forward Michael Washington had 12 points and a career-high 12 rebounds. Senior forwards Charles Thomas (9 points ) and Darian Townes (8 points ) also played well.

“The big guys are tremendously better,” Hinson said of Hill, Thomas, Townes and Washington. “They’re running down the floor and giving great effort in defense transition and in offense transition, and I do think that’s a big difference from what they’ve done in the past.

“ Those big guys are moving. You think guys are giving free food down there underneath that basket the way they were running tonight.”

The Bears held Beverley to 6 points, less than half of his average of 14. 1. He was 2 of 9 from the field.

“Patrick’s a key player for us,” Ervin said. “But we have other guys that can step up.”

Arkansas senior forward Sonny Weems, back from a onegame suspension for academic reasons, started and had 7 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists, but also 5 turnovers.

Hill said while Arkansas can play better, Monday night’s game was a sign of the progress Pelphrey has been demanding.

“We’ve obviously got some things to work on, but this was a good game for us,” Hill said. “We took some steps in the right direction.”