FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas women took Coach Tom Collen’s pregame speech to heart Saturday.

“The last thing that we talked about coming out of the locker room was that all year long the defense will have to set the tone for our offense,” Collen said. “We’re going to have to get some points off transition, we’re going to have to get some off steals, and I think it’s important that the defense sets the tone all year long.”

Arkansas’ defense did just that in Saturday’s season opener at Walton Arena, putting the clamps on Louisiana-Monroe from the get-go en route to a 77-38 victory in front on an announced crowd of 1, 460.

The relative ease with which the Razorbacks cruised past the Warhawks came as a surprise to anyone who watched Arkansas slop its way through a 16-point victory over NAIA member Rogers (Okla. ) State in its lone exhibition game. Even Collen admitted to feeling some anxiety between the exhibition and Saturday.

“I’m not going to lie to you,” Collen said. “I was a little nervous before the game.”

The Razorbacks didn’t appear to share Collen’s apprehension, however, and enjoyed advantages of 23-10 in points off turnovers and 14-2 in fast-break points while limiting Louisiana-Monroe to 15-of-66 shooting from the field.

Senior forward Whitney Jones said the Razorbacks expected an easy victory “if we just went out there and did our job, went out there and played hard on defense, executed on offense and rebounded well.”

In addition to the stingy defense, ignited by a variety of presses implemented by assistant coach Tim Eatman, Arkansas displayed a balanced offensive attack. Freshman guard Ceira Ricketts led the way with 14 points, while senior Ayana Brereton added 13 and Jones 12. Junior guard Charity Ford and freshman guard Lyndsay Harris scored 10 each.

Harris and Ricketts sparked the Razorbacks almost from start to finish. Harris made 2 three-pointers to go with 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 1 block. Ricketts had team highs in rebounds (7 ) and steals (5 ) and had 1 assist.

“I would say 22 and 33 were pretty darn good,” Louisiana-Monroe Coach Mona Martin said in reference to Ricketts and Harris. “Those two are nice little players and are going to add a good dimension for them.”

Louisiana-Monroe got eight points from Leslie Sumar and seven from Elizabeth Torres, while Little Rock senior Lottie Moore had a game-high 10 rebounds. Mostly, though, the Warhawks struggled to get untracked against an aggressive, athletic Razorbacks defense.

“The bottom line is when you shoot the ball as poorly as we did it’s really not going to matter what you do,” Martin said.

Arkansas jumped to a 15-8 lead and led by as many as 12 points before settling for a 30-19 halftime advantage. Louisiana-Monroe got a baseline jumper from Ashley Wallis to open the second half, but Arkansas countered with a 13-1 run that included a three-pointer by Brereton and two baskets by Ricketts.

The Razorbacks were ahead 43-23 at that point with 14: 24 to go and pushed the lead to 61-30 when Ricketts pulled up for a short jumper in transition with 6: 12 remaining. Arkansas’ biggest lead came at 75-32 on a late three-pointer by Harris.

Arkansas returns to action Wednesday when it hosts High Point.