Watkins’ double-double helps UA Red team prevail
FAYETTEVILLE — After Manny Watkins’ layup with one second left in regulation forced overtime at 106-all, Jaylen Barford’s overtime free throws put the Red ahead to stay for an eventual 118-113 victory over the White in the Arkansas Razorbacks’ intrasquad game Sunday at Walton Arena.
Two free throws by Barford, a junior-college-transfer guard, with 19 seconds left in OT provided a 116-113 Red lead.
Anton Beard’s bid for a tying trey with nine seconds left rimmed out to Red forward Trey Thompson, who iced them both for the 118-113 final.
Watkins, a senior returning guard notable for being a sixth-
man, blue-collar who does all the little things, did a lot of big things Sunday with 25 points and 14 rebounds. Everything but hit free throws, going one for seven.
“I would have had … 30 if I had hit free throws,” Watkins said. “I am probably going to shoot 1,000 free throws tomorrow and it’s my birthday. I may shoot 2,000.”
Barford scored 23 with seven rebounds and seven assists for the Red while senior guard Dusty Hannahs scored 21 while hitting 5 of 10 threes. Red forward Dustin Thomas, redshirted last season transferring from the University of Colorado, scored 21 while freshman forward Brachen Hazen scored 17 (six of eight, three treys included) and Thompson tallied 11 with nine rebounds.
For the White, debuting junior-college-transfer guard Daryl Macon (Little Rock Parkview) scored a game 28 including four of eight treys and six of eight free throws.
“As everyone knows I have always wanted to play here,” Macon said. “And to play my first game here I was very excited. My first half I had butterflies in my stomach. But as I started scoring and getting into the game I just started having fun out there.”
White senior center Moses Kingsley, the SEC Preseason Player of the Year, scored 27 with 12 boards and three blocked shots.
Kingsley touched the ball considerably less in the first half that the White trailed, 58-43, than the second half.
Did Arkansas coach Mike Anderson, neutrally observing the game, tell the White staff to get Kingsley more touches?
“I think Moses told them,” Anderson said.
Moses’ message from 6-10 on high certainly was received.
“When you’ve got a guy like Moses on your team and he’s preseason SEC player of the year, you’ve got to feed him the ball,” Macon said. “I don’t think he can be stopped, by anybody in the SEC or in the country. So feeding him the ball is going to be a big part of the game this year.”
Beard, a junior two-year letterman, dealt 11 assists while scoring 16 points for the White.
“Anton was running the show,” Anderson said. “He looked like the freshman of two years ago.”
Beard missed the first semester of last season under disciplinary suspension and never got untracked like his freshman year as the point guard of a 27 win team.
Freshman guard C.J. Jones scored 20 White points.
Junior-college-transfer forward Arlando Cook twice struck 13 with a 13 point, 13-rebound White double-double, freshman forward Adrio Bailey scoring nine points.
Anderson praised everybody’s offense in an entertaining show for the fans, allowed free admission with a donation of canned goods to the Jane B. Gearhart Food Bank assisting the needy in northwest Arkansas.
The coach asserted he expects to see considerably better defense when the Razorbacks host Central Missouri in a 7 p.m. Friday exhibition game at Walton.
“It was a game of offense, we know that,” Anderson said. “But it gave people a glimpse of some of the things I’ve been seeing in practice, the potential with some of these guys. But let’s not get carried away. Let’s see what we do against someone other than ourselves. To me, it’s going to be a process with this team in terms of really making sure they understand it’s really going to be about our defense. Offense, I believe we can be able to score. But our defense is something I’m really looking forward to really getting better and better and better.”