ANDY SHUPE Northwest Arkansas Times Arkansas junior wing Michael Washington, right, takes a turn-around shot in the lane over Campbellsville University senior center Hristo Petkov during the first half of the Hogs ’ 103-58 exhibition win Monday in Bud Walton Arena.

With four big men graduated, the Razorbacks really need 6-9 junior Michael Washington to loom large.

Against little Campbellsville, anyway, he did.

Washington’s game-high 22 points, 7 rebounds and 4 blocked shots led Arkansas to an 103-58 rout of overmatched small college Campbellsville of the NAIA Monday in the Razorbacks’ first of two exhibition games at Walton Arena.

Arkansas hosts Dillard University in an exhibition Thursday night.

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Often in the shadows of graduated big men Steven Hill, Darian Townes, Charles Thomas and Vincent Hunter the past two years, Washington stood out from the get-go, pacing the Hogs to a 52-27 first half with 14 points, 6 boards and 3 shot blocks while taking more charges than American Express.

“ When those guys were here, ” Washington said, “ you learned a lot, like D. Townes’ post moves, Steven blocking shots and Charles taking charges. ”

He seemed more proud of taking the 3 first-half charges than scoring 22 points.

“ Aw, yeah, ” Washington said. “ Defense comes first then you score. It’s really not hard. You just stand there and take a hit. ”

While noting “ it won’t always be so easy for him, ” Campbellsville had two starters at home and used nobody taller than 6-8, Arkansas coach John Pelphrey was proud nonetheless of Washington’s performance.

“ Mike obviously dominated the low post, ” Pelphrey said. “ There has never been any doubt in my mind or his mind that he’s going to perform. He’s worked like that since we lost in the NCAA Tournament in March. His conditioning, he’s got himself where he can go every rep. He has to because we have no subs up front. ”

Pelphrey said he wasn’t surprised byWash- ington taking charges or that junior guard Stefan Welsh, two of only three scholarship returnees from last season along with sophomore guard Marcus Britt, stepped up.

Welsh played the point with freshman point guard Courtney Fortson withheld for reasons Pelphrey hasn’t specified.

Welsh dished 4 assists and also shot lights out, 8 of 11 including 4 of 6 treys, for 20 points.

“ I thought Michael and Stef really led us, ” Pelphrey said.

Britt played both the 3-spot and the point and dished 6 assists.

“ Stef’s a vet, ” Washington said, “ and he stepped up, too. And I thought our new guys played well. ”

Welsh said Washington improved everybody’s game.

“ Mike’s just been waiting his turn, ” Welsh said. “ I knew he was due for a big year and today he took a step toward that. And he’s just scratching the surface. You haven’t seen nothing yet. If we establish Mike, we can move around the perimeter and get a lot of easy shots. ”

Freshman shooting guard Rotnei Clarke lived up to his billing with 17 points, 4 of 6 on treys and surprising with his quickness blurring by Campbellsville for a rebound on one end and driving to score on the other.

Despite amassing two fouls by the National Anthem, it seemed, the Hogs’ other big man, redshirt freshman Michael Sanchez of Springdale Har-Ber, adjusted to pick up just one more foul and scored 13 points with 5 boards in 23 minutes.

Washington only logged 21 minutes as Pelphrey auditioned his newcomers.

Jason Henry, the freshman from West Memphis, scored 10 points with 6 boards in his Walton Arena debut after being withheld along with Fortson from the Red-White game.

While pleased overall, and “ surprised by the margin of victory to be honest with you, ” Pelphrey said that “ there’s much to work on, ” particularly fouling too much. The Hogs picked up 24 fouls to Campbellsville’s 21.