LAHAINA, Hawaii — As opposing players threw down dunk after fast-break dunk, Louisville players’ shoulders slumped.

During several disastrous second-half minutes of a Maui Jim Maui Invitational first-round game Monday, the gap between the program’s goals and reality was the size of the Pacific Ocean they’d just crossed to get to the Lahaina Civic Center.

Unlike the Cardinals’ first three games of the season, this was no one-point loss. The defeat was 80-54 at the hands of a legitimate top-10 team in Arkansas of the SEC.

Trust was a central theme of the Atlantic Coast Conference team’s postgame press conference. It will face another ranked opponent Tuesday in No. 21 Texas Tech in the 9:30 a.m. (2:30 p.m. Eastern) consolation game.

“As a team, we got to build trust,” freshman forward Kamari Lands said after posting a team-high 13 points off the bench. “We got to work hard with each other and we got to fight. I feel like in the second half we kind of just gave up and we just let them do whatever they wanted and we weren't tough. That starts in practice with us not giving up, no whatever we do, just working hard. That's how you build trust with each other, definitely.”

First-year coach Kenny Payne acknowledged that it’s going to be a process for his rebuilding team, which saw its previous program leader, Chris Mack, get fired in January.

“We're establishing that. We're trying to build that,” Payne said of the trust issue. “We're trying to let them know you got coaches that's going to love you, that's going to push you, that's going to … coach you with love, so that you understand that no matter what happens in your life we're going to be there with you.

“We got a long way to go, to be honest with you.”

What happened Monday was the bottom falling out after a reasonably close first half. The explosive Razorbacks (4-0) got out repeatedly in transition, and during a stretch of a little more than two minutes, Eric Musselman’s team threw down five straight dunks. They tallied eight slams in the half and 11 for the game.

Guard Anthony Black dominated for the Razorbacks with 26 points on 9-for-11 shooting and six assists. Backcourt mate Ricky Council IV had 15 points and four steals as Arkansas advanced to face No. 10 Creighton in Tuesday’s first semifinal at 3 p.m. (8 p.m. Eastern).

Arkansas outscored Louisville 38-16 in the paint.

Louisville guard El Ellis struggled to 4-for-16 shooting with seven of his team’s 22 turnovers.

“They just kept the pressure on us all game,” Lands said. “Respect to them for playing the defense they did.”

Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.