Arkansas’ press, depth and speed put the Missouri State Bears into second-half hibernation Monday night at Walton Arena.

Down only 36-31 in a first half they mostly led until 6: 44, the Bears were beaten handily, 70-51, before a crowd of 11, 956.

Michael Washington’s dozen points off the bench, to go with his dozen rebounds and 5 blocks for the McGehee sophomore’s first Razorback doubledouble, and senior guard Gary Ervin’s dozen points off the bench led the Razorback effort that included forcing 23 MSU turnovers and outrebounding the Bears, 42-30, including 17 off the offensive glass.

A 17-2 Razorback secondhalf run, including a technical foul on MSU forward Devin Mitchell, put Arkansas irrevocably ahead.

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It ups first-year coach John Pelphrey’s Razorbacks to 7-1 heading into final exams with the next game not until Dec. 12 against Texas-San Antonio here.

Missouri State fell to 4-2 but will get a homecourt rematch against Arkansas next season in Springfield, Mo.

Meanwhile, Washington trashed them Monday as the garbageman on the glass.

“ Mike crashes the boards well, ” said Arkansas senior center Steven Hill of Branson, Mo. “ He gets a lot of easy baskets as a real big hustle guy. All our big men need to get that. ”

Washington put the trash in a box.

“ You box out, you get that, ” Washington said. “ We worked hard and ran their tongues out. ”

Ervin said they called Washington “ W. W. ’ Mr. Double-Double. ”

MSU coach Barry Hinson called Arkansas’ offensive rebounding “ easily the turning point” and that “ we got frazzled. ”

Hinson disputed the merit of the technical but nonetheless credited Arkansas as “ playing well, the best they played, and we played awful. ”

“ We didn’t have any resemblance of what I thought we would do, ” Hinson said. “ Our guards were 3 of [21 ] for threes. We beat a dead man by three shots. ”

Pelphrey said, “ We played very well against a very good team. We committed 21 turnovers but they play great defense, very physical, as good a defensive team as we’ve played. ”

Pelphrey lauded the play of Washington.

“[Washington ] had a great ballgame, ” Pelphrey said. “ He was really active. He’s a talent. He’s quick and long and strong enough to finish after he gets it. He was a weapon tonight on the offensive glass. ”

Arkansas started behind like it did in last Saturday’s victory over Oral Roberts.

“ We had a slow start but we got it to the pace we wanted, really, really fast, ” Pelphrey said. “ We got after it. From the eight-minute mark to the four minute mark, I thought our style won out. We played a fatigued basketball team. ”

Mitchell led MSU with 12 points while Chris Cooks scored 12 off the Missouri State bench.