Box Score FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. –  Northwestern State didn't come up with a post-Christmas surprise Sunday but the Demons provided 40 nervous minutes for Arkansas coach Mike Anderson before the Razorbacks survived with a  100-92 victory at Bud Walton Arena.

Getting 28 points from Michael Qualls and 22 points and 12 rebounds by Bobby Portis, the Razorbacks (10-2) led for the final 36 minutes but never comfortably as the Demons (4-6) followed a vintage performance by point guard Jalan West to the brink of an upset.


"I'm relieved, sure I am," said Anderson. "You see these kind of games when the other team won't go away, but our guys responded when they had to."




NSU's 5-10 junior point guard scored 25 points while dishing out seven assists, shy of his NCAA-leading 8.6 average, against only one turnover. He ran an offense which lost the ball just seven times against the Razorbacks' traditionally-fierce pressure defense.


"It brought me back home," said Qualls, a 6-6 junior from Shreveport-Huntington who played AAU ball with West for two years and battled him at Bossier High School for three seasons. "That was the way Jalan played in high school, shooting, penetrating, passing, getting to the free throw line. He hasn't changed."


NSU was never down by more than nine after halftime with the margin ranging between 4-7 points in the final 10 minutes.


The visitors moved within 94-89 with 1:30 left after West fed Marvin Frazier for a 3-pointer, but Qualls dunked off a nice high-low post feed 27 seconds later before an odd turnover did in the Demons.


With modest pressure on the inbounds pass after Qualls' dunk, NSU's Zeek Woodley was hit with an elbow near his eye but continued upcourt. West took the inbounds pass, didn't notice Woodley was hurt, and flipped the ball to him at midcourt.
Woodley couldn't catch it and Jacorey Williams converted the turnover with a breakaway slam for a seven-point advantage with 49 seconds left.


"An unfortunate accident," said Demons' coach Mike McConathy. "I should have called time but we didn't realize Zeek was as shaken up as he was, and Jalan had no way to see it happen or know."


Woodley, the nation's No. 2 scorer, posted 21 points. NSU got 10 from Frazier and Ta'Jon Welcome.


NSU shot 51 percent overall, made 5 of 11 on 3-pointers and 15 of 18 at the free throw line, with West going 9-for-9. The Razorbacks hit half their shots overall and outrebounded the much-smaller Demons 45-32.


"We played smartly. We did what we could do and we did it pretty well throughout the day against a very well coached, very talented and hard-nosed opponent, and I'm proud of our guys although the game didn't end the way we hoped," said McConathy.


"We're getting more production from guys outside our 'Big Three' and it makes us a much better team," he said.


Arkansas was atypically outscored 19-12 in fast break points and 54-48 in points in the paint, demonstrating West's brilliance at running the NSU offense in a fast-paced but never frantically-paced contest.


NSU jumped up 7-0 and weathered a Razorbacks rally into a 14-point lead just 2:36 before halftime, closing within 48-39 at intermission.


"We didn't get away from what we needed to do. We weathered their run and responded," said McConathy.  "We stayed aggressive and stepped it up a notch in the second half."


The Demons, playing for only the second time in 18 days, opened a hectic stretch of four games in eight days. They come home for a Wednesday afternoon (3 p.m.) game with Louisiana College, then open Southland Conference play on the road next weekend with a Saturday night visit to Houston Baptist and a Monday, Jan. 5 contest at Sam Houston State.