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USATSI

Hofstra entered its game with No. 24 Arkansas on Saturday having already proven twice this season that it could hang with ranked foes. But the Pride were 0-2 in those games, having dropped thrillers against then-No. 15 Houston and then-No. 20 Maryland last month.

That meant there was a sense of belief -- and of finality -- for their showdown with the Razorbacks at Simmons Bank Arena in North Little Rock, Arkansas.

"That was the theme tonight," first-year Hofstra coach Speedy Claxton told reporters after the game. "We have one more on our schedule, and let's not let it slip away."

Hofstra heeded Claxton's message in an 89-81 upset win over Arkansas made all the more impressive by who led the effort and what his team went through in the 36 hours leading up to tip-off.

The Pride's travel from New York hit a Friday snag in Washington D.C. when their scheduled flight into Little Rock was canceled after it boarded, which left the team's 23-person traveling party in a lurch. Hofstra couldn't get that many people on a different flight on such short notice, so the team spent the night at an Embassy Suites in D.C. before choosing what amounted to a last-resort option for a small-budget athletic department.

"We had to kick out some extra money that we typically don't want to kick out, and we chartered in this morning," Claxton said.

Claxton said his players were able to get some sleep before the game, but between the day-of game flight and lack of usual space for a walkthrough, the circumstances were less than ideal for facing a program of Arkansas' caliber.

"We really had to kind of just go play on the fly," Claxton said.

It worked wonderfully. Hofstra, which had not beat a ranked team since 1976, outscored Arkansas 44-26 in the paint, thanks in large part to the play of Abayomi Iyiola, an Arkansas transfer who finished with 18 points and 14 rebounds. After spending two seasons with the Razorbacks and appearing in just one game after working through a torn ACL, the 6-foot-9 forward torched his former squad.

"I thought he outplayed every guy on our roster," Arkansas coach Eric Musselman. "All you've got to do is pick up the stat sheet."

The loss marks two in a row for Arkansas, which rose to No. 10 in the AP Top 25 in late November but will almost assuredly find itself on the outside of the poll Monday. Beyond losing to a squad led by one of his former players that flew in hours before the game, there was another personal connection for Musselman in Saturday's defeat.

When he was head coach of the Golden State Warriors in the early 2000s, Musselman coached Claxton. That relationship paid dividends for Claxton this offseason when he called his old coach to inquire about Iyiola after Iyiola entered the transfer portal.

Musselman gave a positive review, and Iyiola ended up at Hofstra. Then, after several months and one frenzied trip that featured an unexpected stop in Washington D.C., Claxton and Iyiola got a win over the man who used to coach them both.

"It's tough to play against a former team the year after you leave them," Claxton said. "That's why this game was even more important for us, because we wanted to do it for Bey. I'm happy that we got it done."