By NATE ALLEN
Special to The Leader
FAYETTEVILLE – On the re-bound the Arkansas Razorbacks, 5-4, catch the Mercer Bears, 8-2, tonight in the Razorbacks’ annual visit to central Arkansas.
Tip-off is 7 p.m. and on radio only at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock.
Coach Mike Anderson’s Razor-backs are rebounding off final exams concluded before they left for Friday’s visit to the Arkansas Children’s Hospital. They rebound off their first consecutive victories of the 2014-2015 campaign defeating Evansville and Tennessee Tech at Walton Arena. Anderson hopes sophomore point guard Anton Beard, a starter last season from midseason on, is ready to rebound off a 9-game fall semester UA disciplinary suspension on top of the probation requirements he is fulfilling with the judicial system. Beard was charged with forgery last summer.
With senior point guard Jabril Durham playing exceptionally, a SEC leading 73 assists vs. just 19 turnovers, it’s anticipated Beard starts working his way off the bench rather than starting vs. Mercer.
Anderson’s bench has had strong performances from 3-point shooting guard Dusty Hannahs, averaging a team-leading 18.6 points, harassing defensive guard Manuale Watkins and recently effective big men Trey Thompson, the 6-9 sophomore from Madison via Forrest City High, and Willy Kouassi, the 6-9 graduate transfer from the Ivory Coast via Auburn and Kennesaw State.
Between Durham, Watkins and shooting guards Anthlon Bell and Hannahs, and 6-4 starting freshman guard Jimmy Whitt, North Little Rock High grad Beard debuts expected to contribute but not expected to star.
“He’s not the savior,” Anderson said. “He’s just going to be a guy that’s going to come in trying to get back into the rhythm of things, because right now our guys are playing at a pretty good level.”
In Arkansas’ last game, last Saturday night’s 83-57 victory over Tennessee Tech, center Moses Kingsley grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked eight shots while scoring 10 points, and Hannahs and Bell each scored 21 points while Thompson and Kouassi both grabbed seven rebounds and blocked two shots while Thompson tallied a career-high 10 points.
Indeed a “pretty good level” for the Hogs, but not one they can much recede and still defeat Mercer.
They likely will need to play better than merely pretty good to beat Mercer, a Southern Conference school that in 2014 knocked out Duke in the second round of the NCAA Tournament with Duke good enough to win the 2015 national championship last spring.
This season the Bears of coach Bob Hoffman, the former coach of the former Arkansas Aeros, a Springdale-based professional team, have beaten Tulane, Appalachian State and Western Michigan among its eight wins and lost on the road only by six and seven points to Davidson and Auburn.
“I saw them almost beat Auburn last night,” Bell said before the Razorbacks practiced Wednesday. “Auburn won, but it was a pretty good game.”
It was a really good game for Mercer freshmen flashes Jestin Lewis and Stephon Jelks. Guard Lewis scored a career high 28 points while forward Jelks double-doubled with 12 points and 15 rebounds.
Junior guard Phillip Leonard, a veteran of Mercer’s mammoth NCAA Tournament upset over third-seeded Duke, leads Mercer with 49 assists and averages 10.4 points behind the 11.8 and 11.2 of Lewis and Jelks.
“We are facing a Mercer team that just played Auburn tit for tat,” Anderson said. “It was a close game that Auburn ended up pulling out.”
With Auburn coach Bruce Pearl likely ready to pull his hair out with Lewis and Jelks both on a roll.
“The Jelks kid, he’s a pretty good player,” Anderson said “He can go inside and outside and I think he is their leading rebounder. They outrebound their opponents by 14 rebounds game so it’s a team that is really balanced.”
Erased on the boards, 50-26 in an early season-loss to Georgia Tech, the Razorbacks have outrebounded 4 of their last 5 opponents. They won on the scoreboard the four games they last won, losing only 88-85 at Wake Forest when they were outrebounded only 38-35.
Beard debuting for the season in his hometown vicinity should be inspired but he’s not alone among motivated homeboy Hogs.
