UA attempts climb over Summit again

Anton Beard of Arkansas scores against UT Arlington on Friday Nov. 18, 2016 during the game in Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville.
Anton Beard of Arkansas scores against UT Arlington on Friday Nov. 18, 2016 during the game in Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Summit League basketball teams have two victories against Big Ten opponents this season with Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne beating Indiana 71-68 in overtime and Nebraska-Omaha winning 98-89 at Iowa.

North Dakota State, expected to compete for the Summit League championship, will look for another noteworthy upset for the conference when the Bison (8-4) play Arkansas (9-1) at 6 tonight in Walton Arena.

The Bison, who opened the season with a 76-66 victory at home against Arkansas State, return four starters from last season's 20-13 team.

"They beat Arkansas State early on, and Arkansas State is playing pretty good right now," Razorbacks Coach Mike Anderson said. "It's an opportunity for us to get better."

Arkansas State (9-2) got a notable upset of its own winning 78-72 at Georgetown.

North Dakota State's top four scorers -- senior guard Calin Dupree, senior forward Dexter Werner and junior guards A.J. Jacobson and Paul Miller -- played for the Summit League championship team two years ago that went 23-10 and lost to Gonzaga 86-76 in the NCAA Tournament.

"They're a good sum of their parts together," Anderson said. "They've got guys coming back. They're going to run their stuff.

"The have guys who are going to dribble drive and penetrate and shoot threes and they get to the free throw line an awful lot."

The Bison have hit 69 of 216 three-pointers -- with Jacobson going 19 of 36 -- and 161 of 249 free throws.

"It's a team that's familiar with one another and they're going to play to their strengths," Anderson said. "They won't be rattled."

The Razorbacks understand the challenge experienced mid-major teams can present after they beat IPFW 92-83 to open the season -- 11 days before the Mastodons took down No. 3 Indiana -- and beat Texas-Arlington 71-67.

Texas-Arlington won 72-61 at Texas and 65-51 at No. 12 Saint Mary's after nearly beating the Razorbacks.

"Those mid-major teams are really fundamental and skilled," Arkansas senior guard Dusty Hannahs said. "They'll make you pay if you're messing up on defense.

"This is one of those tests where we have to be ready to go out and play good defense and be efficient."

SEC teams have suffered their share of losses to midmajors this season:

• Middle Tennessee -- with former Razorback Jacorey Williams -- beat Ole Miss 77-62 and Vanderbilt 71-48

• Tennessee-Chattanooga beat Tennessee 82-69

• Lehigh beat Mississippi State 87-73

• Missouri lost to North Carolina Central 62-52 and Eastern Illinois 67-64

Other notable upsets by mid-major teams include Indiana State beating No. 15 Butler, Gardner-Webb beating Nebraska, Monmouth beating Memphis, Delaware State beating St. John's and Nicholls State beating Boston College.

Razorbacks junior guard Anton Beard acknowledged the trend of mid-major teams knocking off top teams.

"We just don't want to be that team," Beard said.

Arkansas has avoided upsets in Walton Arena in Anderson's six seasons as coach with a 54-2 home record against nonconference teams.

The only nonconference losses have been to No. 6 Syracuse 91-82 during the 2012-2013 season and to Akron 88-80 last season when the Zips finished 26-9 with a 72-69 overtime loss at Ohio State in the NIT.

"We don't look at names on jerseys," Anderson said. "We just know good teams are going to be coming here and try to knock off the Razorbacks."

Arkansas comes into tonight's game off its biggest victory of the season, 77-74 over former Southwest Conference rival Texas in Houston last Saturday.

"We can't be thinking about the Texas game," Hannahs said. "That was over that day.

"Once we won, we celebrated and then it's on to this game. North Dakota State's a really good team."

Sports on 12/20/2016

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