FAYETTEVILLE — After a 11-1 non-conference start, Arkansas had hopes of making a statement in its SEC opener against visiting No. 25 Florida on Thursday night.
But it was the Gators who made the statement with Arkansas native KeVaughn Allen pouring in 21 points as Florida downed Arkansas 81-72 before a season-high 16,035 fans at Bud Walton Arena.
“Kevaughn did an awesome job for them especially in the first half,” Razorback head coach Mike Anderson said. “That’s to be expected. A guy comes back home and we all know he’s a very good player and is going to play lights out.”
Daryl Macon had a game-high 22 points to lead the Razorbacks (11-2, 0-1), but he Anton Beard - Allen’s former teammate at North Little Rock - were the only two Arkansas players who shot over 50 percent from the field.
The loss broke an 8-game winning streak for Arkansas.
“We just had a lot of breakdowns tonight,” Macon said. “It was one of those games where they were on and we were not. You have those type of games and it is going to be a bad taste until Tuesday (at Tennessee).”
Macon was 7-of-10 from the field, 3-of-5 from 3-point range and 5-of-6 from the free throw line.
“I thought he was the guy that showed up for us,” Anderson said. “We had some guys that didn’t show but I thought Macon played.”
Allen was 7-of-16 from the field, 5-of-9 from 3-point range and 2-of-2 on his charity tosses.
“Allen is one of those type of players that if he hits one, then he’ll hit another one and here comes another one,” Macon said. “We just had to find a way to contain him. Tonight was just his night. You could see he was hitting off-balance 3s and the rim was big for him tonight.”
Moses Kingsley had 13 points and 13 rebounds for the Razorbacks, but was stifled throughout most of the game by the Gators interior guys.
Florida shot 44 percent from the field, but made 9 3-pointers to Arkansas’ 6 while the Razorbacks were hitting just 41 percent of their shots.
Kingsley pointed to his team’s defense as the reason for the loss.
“No, we just didn’t play defense,” Kingsley said. “We didn’t play good defense tonight.”
The two teams were tied 37-37 in rebounding, but Florida got 16 of those on the offensive boards.
Several of those game after Arkansas had cut a 44-35 halftime deficit to 65-58 with exactly seven minutes left.
“I think our main thing tonight was the defensive boards,” Macon said. “I think we cut down to like six and they came back with a rebound dunk and then they came back with an out-of-bounds 3 and he got fouled.”
Anderson was obviously disappointed with his team’s effort.
“I made that statement on my radio show that it’s the little things that we didn’t do that added up to where ended up losing this game,” Anderson said. “Taking the ball out of a timeout out of bounds and not getting back on defense in transition. The loose balls, it seemed they came up with all the loose balls.
“Rebounds we got our hands on and you have got some momentum and we couldn’t finish. Layups, you go to the basket and we don’t get the foul and they block the shot.
“I didn’t think we played with that aggressiveness s and physicality. That’s something we learned tonight. As we get into conference play they let you play. We have got to rise to that occasion in physicality. I do believe it’s the little things that add up and it cost us in the end.”