Rebels Untie Hogs Late in the Game

Adam Brown
Sports Editor
adam.brown@hottytoddy.com

Ole Miss dropped a 76-72 heartbreaker to the Arkansas Razorbacks at home on Saturday night.

“It was a heck of a college basketball game,” head coach Kermit Davis said. “We got up eight, got control of the game, and then one guy makes back-to-back threes and we get a foul called (on us). Just in a matter of 20 seconds. We worked so hard to keep it at eight, and it was gone in 20 seconds.”

Four different Ole Miss (9-6, 0-2 SEC) players scored in double digits in the contest all lead by senior Breein Tyree with 27 points. KJ Buffen (12), Blake Hinson (13) and Devontae Shuler (10) added to the Rebels stats column in the contest.

Early in the second half, Ole Miss had their largest lead at an 11 point advantage over the Razorbacks at the 15:14 mark.

“They got inside Devontae again. We tried to spell Devontae again, (get him) out of the game and give him a break,” Davis said. “We tried to play our three bigs together, but we couldn’t do it. We were more effective in playing smaller guards. We can’t play KJ and Blake (Hinson) together now, too many defensive mistakes. The biggest thing was their guy (Joe) made a bunch of shots.”

Arkansas (13-2, 2-1 SEC) was led on the court by Isaiah Joe who got 34 points on the night.

“We tried to stay on top of him, and we did for the most part. He’ll make one and then get going,” Davis said. “We kind of relaxed and just didn’t get to him, fouled him one time. It’s a unique talent when you can make them like that. He’s got great length, high release, and he can make them that deep.”

The Razorbacks started their come back about the eight-minute mark as they changed their defense.

“We went to what we call a hit or a shadow,” Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman. “I thought it helped us get the ball out of certain players’ hands, specifically Tyree and Shuler.”

In the contest, the Rebels were close to perfect from the charity stripe as they hit 96.2 percent. Arkansas hit at an 81.5 percentage.

Ole Miss returns to action on Tuesday as they travel to the sunshine state to take on the Florida Gators. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. on ESPN2.

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