FAYETTEVILLE — While it didn’t count toward either team's record, the Arkansas-North Texas basketball exhibition game Saturday at Bud Walton Arena followed a familiar pattern between the programs.
The No. 16 Razorbacks walked away with a 68-60 victory over the Mean Green in a preseason matchup of NCAA Tournament teams from last season.
It was the third time Arkansas has defeated North Texas in as many seasons at Bud Walton Arena. The Razorbacks won 66-43 in November 2019 and 69-54 last year.
“We’ve done this three times in a row, and every time we come out here, we get bullied and ball-pressured to the point that we can’t run offense, and turn it over and dig a deep hole,” North Texas coach Grant McCasland said. “Give them credit. I just thought their aggressiveness early in the game defensively really caused us problems. They got us on our heels.
“But then once we settled in, we were able to handle their pressure. We were able to get to the paint. I thought we were real physical on the glass and did a really good rebounding the basketball.
"Unfortunately, when you get in games in like this on the road, you need to take advantage of open shots you get, and we didn’t.”
Arkansas led 50-36 with 12:44 left before the Mean Green went on a 17-8 run to cut the deficit to 56-53 with 4:06 left.
But hustle plays by Davonte Davis that led to baskets by Trey Wade and Chris Lykes allowed the Razorbacks to steady themselves.
“You cut it to a close game, figure out a way to get back into it and have a couple of possessions, and I thought it came down to them coming up with a couple of loose balls,” McCasland said. “
JD Notae had 21 points to lead Arkansas while Lykes scored 14 and Stanley Umude added 12.
The Razorbacks played without two post players in 6-10 Jaylin Williams and 6-8 Kamani Johnson, both of whom were held out because of injuries.
North Texas out-rebounded Arkansas 42-28.
“Part of it is that they played small,” McCasland said. “We knew right when they came out that they were going to go small. If you get Williams down there, Jaylin will usually get a bunch of rebounds around the rim. And just his physicality, just taking people out where other people can go get it.
“We had some pretty good looks and usually when you get good looks, you can get offensive rebounds. We just missed them and that get you in rotation and I thought we got them in rotation a few times, and I thought that allowed us to get some offensive rebounds.”
Offensive rebounds (16) and second-chance points (13) helped North Texas stay in the game despite going 4 of 26 from three-point range. The Mean Green shot 34.5% overall.
“I thought they did a good job closing out, especially just closing out with some purpose,” McCasland said. “I know that was an emphasis of theirs. They fly at shooters. When you look them live, you think they are kind of open, but when you look back on film you see they have great athletes.
"That’s what we talked about — they can close those gaps so quickly and you can tell it is a point of emphasis to what they are doing. But that allowed us to rebound, too.
“What you have got to is figure out a way to limit turnovers and I think that is where they got us, too. They got a lot of their points (18) just off of our (19) turnovers. That is where we have got to have better ball security, but to their credit, they bullied us and got that separation and built that lead that way.”
Tylor Perry, who played high school basketball in Springdale before transferring to an Oklahoma high school, and won a junior college national title with Coffeyville (Kan.) Community College last season, had 15 points for North Texas.
“He is a winner and we are thankful to have him,” McCasland said. “He does a lot of things really well. He got us back in the game early. He got fouled and he just has a knack. We want him to actually be more aggressive offensively. It’s just live we are talking about with all the newcomers. It takes time to figure out how to be aggressive within the system.
“But we need him to be aggressive and he is going to be tremendous player for us and I thought he took a step in the right direction today to eliminate some silly turnovers and find a way to get your legs under you a little more defensively. He is going to be fantastic.”
McCasland said he thinks Arkansas will be a much better team once it gets more experience together.
“You can tell they have a long way to go in regards to fitting the pieces together, but they have the right pieces and they will get it figured out,” McCasland said.
“They always get better."
McCasland said playing other teams will make his team better.
“When you only practice against yourself, you can’t really make the improvement you need to make,” McCasland said. “You need to play other people that play different defenses, that play different ways, and where you can get different lineups out there and get experience and comfort playing together.
“You just can’t do it unless you are playing games."