ANTHONY REYES Northwest Arkansas Times Arkansas freshman guard Lyndsay Harris (33 ) shoots against Southern Methodist University during the first half Friday in Bud Walton Arena.

It was a night for Arkansas’ Shanita Arnold to remember. For the SMU Mustangs, it was a contest they would rather forget.

Arnold tallied a career-high 22 points and hit six 3-pointers to shove the Razorbacks past SMU, 78-69, at Bud Walton Arena Friday night.

Arkansas bolted out to a 7-0 cushion ignited by an Ashley McCray bucket inside and fueled by the first of five first-half treys by Arnold.

“I think everyone in the state who follows Arnold knows that she’s capable of what she did tonight,” Arkansas coach Tom Collen said. “I’ve told her I don’t need her to do this every night, to be the leading scorer. If she starts trying to do that, I think we’re in trouble.

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“But tonight after that first shot went down it gave her a little spark of confidence. When the next one went down I think she was in invincibility mode and she got hot. If she doesn’t get hot, we’re not in that game in the first half.”

At one juncture, Arnold had connected on 5 of 6 treys. The former Fort Smith Northside star finished the contest 6 of 11 from beyond the arc, 7 of 15 from the floor and hit both free-throw attempts.

“Coach and I had a talk about a week ago about taking the shot,” Arnold said. “This game I knew it was going to be more challenging and I knew we were going to have to step up and hit some shots... Coming out and taking that shot, opening it up a little bit was my mantra along with trying to get my teammates involved.”

SMU (0-2) recovered from the early 7-0 deficit and snatched a 12-11 edge with 14:36 left in the first half on a bucket by Haley Day. SMU and Arkansas (3-0) exchanged 3-point punches but Arnold canned two threes, sandwiching a trey by Day, to recapture the lead for the Razorbacks, 17-15.

The lead changed hands on three other occasions before Arnold swished two more from 3-point land to give Arkansas a 41-35 cushion at the break.

Arnold may have stepped up the biggest with her sixth and final three at the 8:17 mark of the second half. SMU’s Christine Elliot banged inside for a deuce down low to tie the contest, 55-all, at the 10:06 mark. Arnold retaliated with a three and SMU never fully recovered.

“We played three quarters tonight and we can’t do that,” SMU coach Rhonda Rompola said. “... And that little point guard — I heard someone say she hadn’t shot that good since high school. She went off on us today and played real well against us. I’m just glad the Mustangs can bring the best out in her. She had a heck of a game.”

Rompola adjusted her strategy to defend Arnold late in the first half, a plan that slowed Arnold but not her teammates.

“[Arnold] had a few uncontested threes early because we were helping in with McCray,” Rompola said. “Then Arnold hit some contested shots and we finally decided to blitz her on the on-ball pick, double team her and make her give it up. Maybe we should have done that a little bit sooner but this isn’t a player who scores like this. It seemed like Arkansas was looking for her to shoot it.”

Arnold held the hot hand early but it was the labor of two others that helped keep SMU at bay. Ayana Brereton accumulated 17 points on 7 of 12 shooting and Ceira Ricketts racked up 18 points on 7 of 13 from the floor.

“This team has no superstars and it could be a different kid every night,” Collen said. “If we can get a few of them hot then we’re going to have a pretty good offensive night. We had three kids get hot tonight and step up in a major way.”