Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The Arkansas Razorbacks knew they could play better defense than they showed in the first half of their NCAA tournament opener against Dayton on Saturday.

They made up for it at the end, holding the Flyers without a field goal for the last 12 minutes of a 72-55 victory.

Quistelle Williams scored 15 points, Keira Peak and Lyndsay Harris added 14 apiece, and Arkansas rallied from an early double-digit deficit with a smothering defensive effort in the second half.

C'eira Ricketts had 13 points and five assists for the sixth-seeded Razorbacks (24-8), who finished the game with a 20-2 run after trailing by as many as 14 in the first half.

"First half, we knew our defense was kind of slow, and that's not what we thrive on," Ricketts said. "So we told each other that we're going to come out (in the) second half and pressure them, and that's what we did."

Andrea Hoover scored 16 and Justine Raterman added 14 for the No. 11-seeded Flyers (23-7), who withered under the Razorbacks' full-court pressure and missed their final 15 shot attempts.

"We kind of ran out of gas in the second half," Dayton coach Jim Jabir said.

The Razorbacks, back in the tournament for the first time since 2003, will play the winner of Saturday's second game between third-seeded Texas A&M (22-10) and No. 14 seed Albany (23-9).

Dayton, which led the Atlantic 10 in scoring (71 points per game), shot 24 percent from the field in the second half against the Razorbacks' 10th-ranked scoring defense.

"That's a really good offensive basketball team," Arkansas coach Tom Collen said. "We've had some efforts like that before, some stretches when we shut people down. They obviously missed some shots. But obviously as the game wore on, they fatigued a little bit."

The Razorbacks were the ones having shooting problems at the start, missing 10 of their first 11 attempts. But they began attacking the basket to rally late in the first half.

"There was a point, early in the game, where they were being challenged," Collen said. "They found a way to respond. They dug deep down inside, they didn't lose confidence in themselves, and they battled back."