Hogs go zip for Monk, vs. Akron
FAYETTEVILLE — Wednesday began badly for the Arkansas men’s basketball team when Bentonville High senior guard and five-star guard Malik Monk chose to sign with Kentucky.
It got no better for Mike Anderson’s team at night in an 88-80 home loss to Akron before 5,902 at Walton Arena.
It ended badly but not surprisingly. Though a so-called mid-major, Keith Dambrot’s Mid-American Conference Zips (3-0) are bigger, stronger, more experienced and better than the Southeastern Conference Razorbacks (1-1). They jumped ahead 7-0, never trailing and taking 13- and 14-point leads.
“A lot of respect for Arkansas and the way they play,” Dambrot said. “The one thing I know is we are big and strong enough to play with the big boys, which most mid-majors aren’t. And we are probably more experienced than them. We started three seniors.”
Anderson, previously 40-1 in nonconference games at Walton Arena (losing to No. 6 Syracuse in 2012), gave the Zips their due.
“No way around it, not many teams take a win out of here especially nonconference play,” Anderson said. “Give Akron credit. They came in with a game plan and part of that plan was to spread us out and move the ball and make shots.
And they made shots. Our defense has to get better.
Anderson said the Arkansas vs. Akron matchup was “inexperience against experience.”
Akron’s seniors have long played together but sophomore point guard Antino Jackson — whom no one else recruited, Dambrot said — most undid Arkansas. Jackson scored 23 points, triggering an offensive attack that made 13 of 28 from three-point range.
Wednesday’s game for both teams is the first of the four-game NIT Season Tip-Off. The Razorbacks play their second round game Friday night against Southern at Walton before moving on to Brooklyn, N.Y. to play Georgia Tech on Thanksgiving Day afternoon and Villanova or Stanford the following day.
Jackson, not only weathering but prospering against Arkansas pressure, dealt seven assists and initiated the dribble penetration drawing the defense away from perimeter shooters.
The Zips led Arkansas by 13 with 6:24 left in the half, Arkansas whittling that to 37-29 by the break.
Arkansas almost made up the 13-point deficit cutting it to 49-47 on a basket by Trey Thompson.
The Hogs had the chance to take the lead but on the same possession, Jimmy Whitt missed a hurried dunk and Dusty Hannahs and Anthlon Bell, whose consecutive threes got Arkansas back in it, missed consecutive threes before Keaton Miles was fouled rebounding the last missed.
Miles went to the line for a one-and-one, missed the shot, and Jackson took it the other way for a foul-drawing layup and threepoint play. That started the Zips to a peak lead of 14 (73-59) with 5:58 left.
“I just felt like a couple of times the crowd got into it,” Hannahs said, “and we cut it to two or four … and then we’d have a foul or they’d come down and hit a couple of shots. I have to give all due respect to Akron. That’s a great team that we just lost to. We should have handled our business on our home court but that’s a great team and they were hitting shots.”
The Razorbacks did not succumb without a fight cutting to to 78-74 and 80-76 in the final two minutes but Akron ,behind Kwan Cheatham, pulled away again.
“I did like that we battled,” Anderson said. “Especially Moses Kingsley.”
Though heavily outweighed by Akron’s veteran front line, the 6-10 Kingsley double-doubled with 17 points and 12 rebounds.
Bell, making 5 of 13 threes, scored 23 leading the Razorbacks while Hannahs scored 16.
Reggie McAdams scored 18 for Akron with four of eight threes. Cheatham, hitting three of five threes in stopping the Razorbacks from rallying a second time, scored 12 and Jake Kretzer, making three of six threes, scored 11.
With premier Akron center Pat Forsythe (nine points and nine rebounds) in second-half foul trouble, 6-10, 295-pound Isaiah Jackson came off the Akron bench to score 15 points with seven rebounds.