FAYETTEVILLE — Dusty Hannahs scored a game-high 23 to lead three players in double figures as Arkansas shook off a slow start to roll past Fort Wayne for a 92-83 win in its season opener Friday in Bud Walton.
The Razorbacks struggled to guard the 3-point line and were beaten up on the boards, two issues they struggled with a year ago, but pulled away late in the first half and kept the Mastadons at bay after halftime.
"I just saw, early on, some stage fright," Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said. "But hopefully we've got that over with now and we can go play basketball. When it mattered, our guys did a good job of executing defensively and offensively, started rebounding the basketball."
Hannahs didn’t have a great shooting night — 1 of 6 from 3-point range but got into the paint and either scored or got to the line, where he hit 8 of 10 free throws. He scored seven straight Arkansas points in the second half to extend Razorbacks’ lead to 74-64 after Fort Wayne cut it to four.
"Dusty took the team on his back," Fort Wayne coach Jon Coffman said.
Junior Daryl Macon scored 13, had seven rebounds and five assists in his first Razorback game, while junior guard Anton Beard was a spark off the bench, scoring 12 and dishing three assists. Moses Kingsley struggled with foul trouble, but finished with nine points, nine rebounds and seven blocks.
"You're not going to see a lot of players in college basketball in the post as good as Moses," Coffman said. "He's really, really tough. We made him relatively inefficient — 4 of 9 — tonight. We tried to keep him out of rhythm with traps but our gameplan was let's go attack him."
Kingsley was one of the only steadying forces on the glass.
"We've got to do a much better job of really putting bodies on people and going to get the basketball," Anderson said. "Once we did that, we were getting layups on the other end."
Arkansas outscored Fort Wayne 52-22 in fast-break points and held a 24-0 advantage in points in the paint, advantages, which — when combined with the Hogs’ talent disparity — helped them overcome a sloppy, largely unimpressive effort.
Fort Wayne outrebounded Arkansas 45-39 and turned 21 offensive rebounds into 21 second-chance points. The Mastadons cooled down after a hot start from 3-point range and wound up hitting just 9 of 28, but the Razorbacks’ perimeter defense was at times lacking. When outside shots weren’t falling, Fort Wayne drew fouls (29 of them) and got to the line on a frequent basis, converting 24 of 40 as the game ground to a halt at times.
"Their team was really good and we have got to do a better job of keeping them in front of us," Beard said.
Arkansas trailed 36-30, the byproduct of allowing Fort Wayne to make 6 of its first 11 3-pointers. But Beard sparked an 21-7 run to put Arkansas back in control heading into intermission, scoring seven and assisting on another bucket.
The run helped give the Hogs separation and they were able to hold off the Mastadons in the second half for the season-opening win. They host Southern Illinois on Monday.