FAYETTEVILLE -- Alabama was hanging around early in the second half at Walton Arena on Wednesday night as the Crimson Tide dragged Arkansas into playing a grind-it-out game.
When the Razorbacks got the tempo to their liking, they started getting stops and scoring in transition to beat the Crimson Tide 87-68 before an announced crowd of 8,214.
It was the most points Alabama has allowed this season, surpassing Auburn's 84-64 victory over the Tide.
Alabama came into the game holding its opponents to an average of 63.2 points.
"In the second half, we cranked it up another couple of notches," Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson said. "Our defensive intensity picked up. We got on the fast break."
The Razorbacks (17-5, 6-3 SEC) surpassed their victory total for last season when they finished 16-16. They also tied Alabama (13-8, 6-3) for fourth place in the conference standings while rebounding from a 99-71 loss at Oklahoma State on Saturday.
"Give Mike credit," Alabama Coach Avery Johnson said. "He did a great job with his team tonight, and they bounced back, because this was a different team than the one we saw on Saturday.
"They're a sound basketball team. They play the right way. I was trying to convince my team that their last game in the SEC-Big 12 Challenge wasn't indicative of how good their team is."
Dusty Hannahs, a senior guard from Little Rock, led the Razorbacks with 19 points in 17 minutes. He hit 5 of 6 three-pointers.
Arkansas senior center Moses Kingsley had 15 points, 6 rebounds and 2 blocked shots. Junior guard Jaylen Barford scored all 13 of his points in the second half when the Razorbacks pulled way after Alabama had cut its halftime deficit from 35-27 to 35-31 with 19:08 left.
Junior guard Daryl Macon scored 12 points after being held without a point at Oklahoma State. Senior guard Manny Watkins had 10 points, and freshman forward forward Adrio Bailey had 7 points and 3 rebounds in 11 minutes.
Freshman guard Dazon Ingram led Alabama with 14 points. Freshman forward Braxton Key had 12 points.
Arkansas outscored Alabama 28-8 over an 8:22 span -- including 13 points by Barford and back-to-back three-point baskets by Hannahs -- to take a 63-39 lead with 10:24 left.
"We can't play at their pace," Johnson said. "They played at warp speed tonight. That's not our strength.
"They just disrupted us tonight. We just didn't have great concentration and the type of maturity needed to not only play well, but to win this game."
The Razorbacks didn't have any fast-break points in the first half.
"That's not us as a team," Barford said. "We had to pick that up in the second half."
Arkansas did and outscored Alabama 19-4 in the second half on fast-break points.
"It seemed like we were getting a stop every time and getting a quick bucket or a dunk or a three," Hannahs said. "It probably was our best sequence of the season, but we need to build off it and get better next game and keep getting better game by game and have more streaks like that."
It was the Razorbacks' fifth consecutive SEC victory.
"We just threw that game out of the way, honestly," Barford said of the loss at Oklahoma State. "We just bounced back because we know we have to fight for our conference position right now.
"It was just, 'Stay focused and keep pushing and try to win games.' "
Arkansas took advantage of 18 Alabama turnovers and outscored the Tide 28-7 in points generated by turnovers, which included 11 steals.
"Give them credit for disrupting our catches," Johnson said. "We didn't have easy catches tonight."
The Razorbacks shot 49.2 percent (29 of 59) from the field -- including 57.6 percent (19 of 33) in the second half -- and hit 11 of 23 three-pointers. They had 18 assists, including 4 each by Barford and Macon and 3 by junior forward Trey Thompson.
Alabama shot 39.6 percent (21 of 53) from the field.
"I think from start to finish this was probably one of our better performances," Anderson said. "I'm just talking about being solid. We shot the ball well. I thought we defended well and shared the basketball well, and we went to the guys that had it going on.
"There's always room to get better, but I like what I saw."
Sports on 02/02/2017