DALLAS -- Arkansas opened on the road by winning where the home team rarely losses, and the Razorbacks never even trailed.
The No. 25 Razorbacks took control early against SMU, then held on late to beat the Mustangs 78-72 Tuesday night at Moody Coliseum before an announced crowd of 7,086.
"This is a good place," Arkansas junior guard Michael Qualls said. "A lot of teams don't win here. It was a big opportunity for us."
The Razorbacks (4-0) didn't waste the opportunity for a quality road victory and became the second visiting team, along with Louisville last season, to beat the Mustangs (2-3) in their past 23 home games.
"I'm certainly proud of our guys to come into this type on environment and find a way to survive," Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson said. "That's what we talked about -- surviving."
In the previous three seasons the Razorbacks were a combined 6-32 in out-of-state games under Anderson, although they improved to 4-10 last season.
"This is a new year for us," Arkansas sophomore forward Bobby Portis said. "We can't go off previous years.
"Like Coach A said, we need to come out with a bang this year, and this is one of our bangs, I guess."
Portis provided the biggest bang for the Razorbacks with 22 points before fouling out with 1:15 left. He hit 8 of 13 shots on a variety of post moves and jumpers, including a 12-footer to beat the buzzer and give
"The kid Portis is a pretty damn good player," said SMU Coach Larry Brown, a longtime NBA coach. "He's going to be playing somewhere else soon. He can step outside, he posts up."
SMU, which was No. 22 in The Associated Press preseason poll before losing games at Gonzaga and Indiana, pulled to within 71-66 with 50.5 seconds left, but Portis said it wasn't tough watching the game from the bench.
" I had trust in my guys to go out there and pull it off," he said.
Qualls, who scored 13 points, and senior guard Ky Madden, who scored 10, each hit 3 of 4 free throws in the final 44.1 seconds to make sure the Razorbacks stayed ahead.
"We knew it was probably going to come down to making good decisions and making free throws," Qualls said. " They had to foul us in the short time they had. We just held our composure.
"Big Bob fouled out, but I feel like everybody else stepped up."
Arkansas made its first appearance in The Associated Press poll in seven years Monday, and the significance wasn't lost on the players.
"Of course it would be horrible news to hear that we broke into the Top 25 to come out and lose a day later," Qualls said.
Freshman guard Anton Beard scored on a driving basket to put the Razorbacks ahead 50-31 with 13:35, but led by senior center Yanik Moreira (20 points) and sophomore guard Keith Frazier (16 points), the Mustangs pulled within five points three times in the final minute.
"You have to remember that basketball is a game of runs, and they had their runs," Anderson said. "You're not going to keep a good team down like that.
"I would love to play perfect basketball for 40 minutes, but it is entirely impossible to do that."
Anderson said Brown and SMU deserved credit for mounting a comeback.
"We had a lead, but when you've got Larry Brown on the sideline, you know they're still in the game," Anderson said.
Brown lamented SMU's 16 first-half turnovers and 1-of-10 shooting to start the game as the Razorbacks jumped ahead 11-2 the first four minutes.
"The key was they were much more aggressive, much better prepared, and set the tone," Brown said. "They imposed their will, and we weren't prepared.
"You can look no further than the coach when the team comes out that way and disorganized like we were."
The Mustangs had just three turnovers the second half when they shot 57.7 percent from the field (15 of 26), but they fell too far behind to come all the way back.
" We didn't respond in the first half," Brown said. "In the second half we gave ourselves a chance, but when you get so far behind or give them so much life, you can't miss a dunk, you can't miss a couple of free throws.
"You've got to play perfect at the end."
Qualls said the Razorbacks did a good job in the first half of forcing the ball out of the hands of SMU junior point guard Nic Moore, who finished with 10 points, 6 assists and 5 turnovers.
"I feel like everybody played very physical," Qualls said. "We just tried to make it not easy for them, because SMU has a whole roster full of good players that if we just sit back and let them do what they want to do, they're going to fill it up all night.
"Our game plan is to make you do stuff that you don't really do all the time. I'm not saying other guys on SMU can't handle the ball, but we know Nic Moore is the primary ball-handler, so we wanted to make the other guys make decisions."
Sports on 11/26/2014