Ole Miss snaps SEC losing skid with another dominant showing at home in win over Arkansas
If only the Ole Miss men’s basketball team could pack the SJB Pavilion onto the plane when they travel this might be an unstoppable program.
Coming back home after losing back-to-back games for the first time this season and remaining winless in Southeastern Conference play the Rebels defeated Arkansas, 77-51, and once again provided a dominating effort in Oxford.
Ole Miss (16-3, 3-3 SEC) looks like a completely different team in the Pavilion to the one that hits the road and plays in enemy territory. Wednesday’s victory was another example of it.
Defense was sharper and crisper with eight steals and six blocked shots on the night. Jamarion Sharp led the team with three and Matthew Murrell credited with two. Another positive was the three-point shooting by Arkansas (10-9, 1-5). Teams have been torching Ole Miss from beyond the in recent games but the Razorbacks shot under 23 percent.
“We played well of both ends on the floor. Obviously a better defensive effort,” said Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard. “To hold a SEC team with talented players and a great coach in the 50s kind of speaks for itself. A lot of individual possessions in there that we can clip out and might have been some of our best defense of the year.”
The defense was aided by a cleaner night on offense for Ole Miss. The last couple games have seen the Rebels commit nine turnovers a half at times but they limited it to nine total turnovers against the Razorbacks who scored only four points off them.
Jaemyn Brakfield was the outlier with four turnovers on Wednesday.
“The offense helped the defense tonight,” Beard added. “Low turnover game especially when one of our better players have an uncharacteristic (night), too many turnovers. To still have a team turnover game …that’s a good sign.”
Top 10
- 1Hot
Kirk Herbstreit
Shot fired at First Take, Stephen A. Smith
- 2New
Ohio State vs. Oregon odds
Early Rose Bowl line released
- 3
Updated CFP Bracket
Quarterfinal matchups set
- 4Trending
Paul Finebaum
ESPN host rips CFP amid blowout
- 5
Klatt blasts Kiffin
Ole Miss HC called out for tweets
Get the On3 Top 10 to your inbox every morning
By clicking "Subscribe to Newsletter", I agree to On3's Privacy Notice, Terms, and use of my personal information described therein.
Ole Miss shot nearly 50 percent from the floor but still had a below average night from long range.
The Rebels shot just under 37 percent from outside the perimeter (7-19) but was not as noticeable with how well their high percentage shooting went. They made 11 of their 20 layup attempts and looked more in control with their shot selection outside of a few dry spells.
Jaylen ‘JuJu’ Murray finished with a game-high 21 points followed by 18 points from Murrell. Allen Flanigan and Brakefield scored 11 and 10 points, respectively.
It was a good night for Beard’s two bigs in Sharp and Moussa Cisse. For the first time in SEC play it looked as if their size was being disruptive in the paint and causing Arkansas problems. Both were much more active with Sharp finishing with nine points and Cisse chipped in two points on 1-of-2 shooting.
Unfortunately the return home is short-lived as Ole Miss heads back onto the road this weekend with a game at Texas A&M on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. CT.
