NORTH LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas sophomore guard Anton Beard finally made his season debut Saturday night against Mercer after being suspended for the nine fall semester games for disciplinary reasons.
Beard came into the game with 15:09 to play in the first half and hit his first shot -- a three-pointer -- but showed some rust at times as Mercer beat the Razorbacks 69-66 in overtime at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock.
"It's going to take him a little time to get in the rhythm of the game flow, but I applaud him for going out there and being right in the middle of everything," Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson said. "He seems like he's always in the middle of the blue-collar things that help promote winning."
Beard had 6 points, 2 steals and 2 rebounds in 18 minutes and twice forced jump balls.
With 1:24 left in overtime and the game tied 63-63, Beard went to the free-throw line, but missed the front end of a 1-and-1.
"I thought he was a little antsy, a little hyped up," Anderson said. "But defensively he's always going to play hard, and guys can feed off of that. He's still got a ways to go."
Beard started the final 16 games last season.
"It was good to have another guy that has been through the wars that I think will really help us as this team continues to evolve and develop," Anderson said. "I think he'll be OK. It's a start for him."
Focused on Hannahs
Mercer held junior guard Dusty Hannahs -- Arkansas' leading scorer coming into the game at 18.6 points per game -- to 10 points.
Hannahs was 4 of 12 from the field, including 2 of 7 on three-point attempts, and had 3 turnovers and 4 fouls. Two of his fouls came after a turnover and a missed shot as he tried to get the ball back.
"Their strategy was to frustrate our scorers, and I thought Dusty fell into that," Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson said. "He was trying to go get it. Sometimes you may need to be that decoy.
"It's about him getting some experience in terms of how people are going to play him."
Drawing a crowd
Saturday night's announced attendance of 9,470 was a season-high for Arkansas at home this season.
"To all the fans that came out, we really appreciate them," Mike Anderson said. "It was a great, great atmosphere."
The Razorbacks' largest attendance for their six games at Fayetteville is 6,842 for Arkansas' 83-57 victory over Tennessee Tech last Saturday night.
Arkansas' Walton Arena games have an averaged paid attendance of 14,117 based on tickets sold, but the announced estimated actual attendance average is 5,913.
Half bad
Mercer led 19-17 at halftime when the teams combined to shoot 13 of 52 from the field.
The Bears were 7 of 30 (23.3 percent) in the first half, while the Razorbacks were 6 of 22 (27.3 percent)
It was Arkansas' lowest-scoring first half of the season. The Razorbacks' previous low was 29 points in an 88-80 loss to Akron.
"The first half we were really stagnant," said Arkansas senior guard Anthlon Bell, who scored 16 points. "We weren't playing our type of basketball.
"We weren't really getting out in transition. Then when we were, we weren't pushing it up. We made it hard on ourselves."
Fort Smith guy
Mercer Coach Bob Hoffman said he was born in Fort Smith, though his family didn't live there long.
"My father was a pastor," he said. "So we moved around a lot."
First one
Mercer is 1-4 against Arkansas after winning the teams' first meeting since the 1999-2000 season when the Razorbacks swept two games from the Bears.
The Razorbacks had a regular-season home game scheduled against the Bears 16 seasons ago, then the teams were matched at the Big Island Invitational in Hilo Hawaii.
First Arkansas beat Mercer 71-54 in Hilo on Nov. 26, 1999, then the Razorbacks won the rematch 85-60 Dec. 18 in Fayetteville.
Arkansas also beat Mercer 73-67 in the 1981 NCAA Tournament at Austin, Texas, and 82-62 in Pine Bluff during the 1982-1983 season.
Sports on 12/20/2015