HOUSTON -- Arkansas guard Dusty Hannahs couldn't resist making the downward hook 'em horns sign as he ran off the Toyota Center court Saturday after the Razorbacks beat Texas 77-74.
"I didn't mean it disrespectfully," Hannahs said. "Just in the heat of the moment, I was pretty happy and trying to get our fans loud."
Hannahs was born in 1993 -- two years after the Razorbacks left the Southwest Conference and the Texas rivalry in the past to join the SEC -- but the senior from Little Rock is well aware of how Arkansas fans feel about the Longhorns.
"I grew up a fan of Arkansas," Hannahs said. "I still know Texas is a big rival of ours. "I obviously didn't grow up during the Southwest Conference days, but I still know what it's about."
Razorbacks Coach Mike Anderson talked to his players about the rivalry.
"Coach Anderson was telling us about the history before the game," Hannahs said. "Letting us know it was going to be an intense game."
Intense it was as the Razorbacks held on to win when 6-3 Arkansas senior Manny Watkins forced Texas 6-4 sophomore Kerwin Roach into a tough three-point attempt that missed the basket at the buzzer.
"Manny Watkins had awesome ball pressure on Roach," said Arkansas junior guard Daryl Macon, who led the Razorbacks (9-1) with a career-high 23 points. "Jaylen Barford guarded Tevin Mack and didn't let him get the ball.
"That was probably our best possession of defense the whole game."
Texas Coach Shaka Smart said the Longhorns (5-5) tried to run a play to get a three-point shot for Mack, a 6-7 sophomore who scored 20 points.
"Arkansas did a good job defending him," Smart said. "We just weren't able to get a look up."
Mack, who hit 4 of 8 three-pointers, said it was frustrating to not get a shot to try to send the game to overtime.
"I wanted to be the one to make the shot -- or take the shot at least," Mack said. "But we didn't execute in that situation."
Mack's three-pointer with 16 seconds left pulled the Longhorns within 77-74, then Texas got the ball back a second later when Anton Beard's inbounds pass was tipped by Texas guard Andrew Jones and went off Barford's hands.
Smart called timeout, and the Razorbacks regrouped on defense.
"We had just turned the ball over, and our guys did a good job of not panicking," Anderson said. "I thought poise was a big word in this game today."
Anderson credited the Razorbacks with doing a good job of switching on the final possession so Roach -- who hadn't attempted a three-pointer in the game and is now 4 of 19 on the season -- wound up with the ball in his hands as the final seconds ticked down.
"Now we're making Kerwin Roach a shooter," Anderson said. "So our guys just stayed attached to people and did a good job of communicating and talking."
Jacob Young, 9 of 34 on three-pointers this season for Texas, had a chance to shoot before passing to Roach, but he was closely guarded by Beard.
"I kind of wish Jacob would have shot from the corner," Smart said. "It seemed like he didn't have a wide open shot, but he's made those before with a hand in his face."
Arkansas hit 29 of 31 free throws -- with Macon 14 of 14 -- compared to Texas hitting 19 of 32.
"As a team going 29 of 31, that's where we won the game," Hannahs said. "I know Texas missed a lot of free throws and we didn't."
The Razorbacks outscored the Longhorns 19-5 over a 5:11 span -- including three-pointers by Hannahs and Macon -- to take a 54-45 lead with 11:58 left.
Texas rallied to tie it 61-61 at the 4:41 mark on Jones' three-point play.
Arkansas responded with a 10-1 run with three-point plays from Barford and center Moses Kingsley to move ahead 71-62 with 2:28 left.
It was just enough cushion for the Razorbacks.
"This is a big road win for us," Macon said. "Texas is a very good team, and they tested us. We needed that as a team to come together and get better."
Hannahs scored 15 points. Kingsley had 7 points, 10 rebounds and 5 blocked shots. Barford had 11 points, and Arlando Cook, Watkins and Beard scored six points each.
"It was a good win," Anderson said. "We had a bunch of guys step up for our team."
Anderson called the game "a classic battle" featuring teams that met for the 154th time.
"Arkansas versus Texas just like the good old Southwest Conference days," he said. "It went down to the last possession and defense had to finish it off for us."
It was the Razorbacks' first victory away from Walton Arena this season. In their only previous game away from home they lost 85-71 to Minnesota. Arkansas had 21 turnovers at Minnesota compared to 10 Saturday.
"Playing a game as a team at Minnesota, this showed we're growing," Hannahs said. "We've got a lot of work left to do, but it's a great grading scale type thing.
"We're a B right now, and we want to get to an A-plus."
Sports on 12/18/2016