Comeback bid by Ole Miss fall short to No. 15 Arkansas in loss

The Ole Miss Rebels were looking to get back on the winning track when Arkansas invaded The SJB Pavilion Wednesday night, but everyone knew it was going to be a tough task before the opening tip was even tossed up.

John Calipari’s Hogs, you see, were 11-3 on the season with their only loses being to No. 6 Duke, No. 7 Houston and No. 12 Michigan State. They were also 1-0 in the SEC having beaten No. 18 Tennessee in their conference opener and are currently ranked 15th in the country – a formidable foe for sure.

Meanwhile, Chris Beard’s Rebel squad was hunting some magic that just has not materialized much this season thus far as they stood at 8-6 overall and 0-1 in the conference.

In the end, the Razorbacks were too much for the Rebels, beating Ole Miss on its home court 94-87 before a crowd that seemed like it was half Arkansas fans and half Rebels.

Arkansas took command of the game in the second half leading by double digits most of the time, but near the end of the game the Rebels mounted a charge and cut the score to four at 89-85 with 1:55 to go.

“We had a great chance,” Beard said. “But Arkansas’s point guard just took over at the end of the game and we had no answer for him. The game is 10 four-minute periods and we played really good at the end, but we had too many bad four-minute stretches earlier in the game and also a couple in the second half. We have things to clean up but we did some really positive things as well. There are no moral victories here, but we can draw some positives off this game.”

That four-point margin was as close as the Rebels (8-7, 0-2 SEC) would get. Great comeback that was close and almost but no cigar.

Eduardo Klafke led the late charge with 11 points as the Rebs were cutting into the Razorback lead, but the Hogs would never yield. Every time Ole Miss made a play, the Hogs countered with one of their own and finally the clock just ran out on the Rebs.

“Typical SEC game,” said Calipari. “We had a chance to win big and we look up and it’s a four-point game. We made a lot of plays on offense, but we have to be better on defense. We are normally a low turnover team, but we made too many tonight. We did have 30 assists though and that’s good.

“Ole Miss shot 60 percent in the second half and a lot of those shots were contested. Credit to them. They made a run and then we had to make a run. They forced us to make plays with the way they were playing.”

At the end, Malik Dia said the Rebels were simply playing hard.

“We had guys just getting after it, but we fell a little short,” said Dia. “We just have to get over the top.”

Beard said there were times when Ole Miss played good enough to win, but had too many lapses in the game.

“Our mistakes were self-inflicted and we just had spurts where we didn’t play well. We also had several stretches where we played winning basketball, but it wasn’t enough,” Beard noted. “We got really aggressive offense late that produced some big buckets. Huge props to those guys out there late in the game. Credit those guys – Eduardo, Pinkins, Ilias. . . . Klafke earned his start tonight and he also came across with some aggressive, quality offense.

“The end of this game was a lot of fun, the most fun I have had since last season. We need to keep that kind of play up. It was just a little late when we caught on fire. Overall, we had a good effort. Arkansas is a very good team – Cal can coach and he’s got really good players. He puts his players in good position to make plays. It starts with him and then he has excellent players. That combination is hard to beat.

“We are disappointed we lost, but there were positives as well. Tomorrow we will certainly work doubly hard on correcting our mistakes, but we will also point out the good things we did. The team still cares and the team is still connected. As long as that is going on, we will get better and we will start winning.”

In the first half, Arkansas jumped out to an 18-9 lead with both teams struggling on offense in the early going, but the Rebels fought back to get it to 32-26 Arkansas with 3:29 to go in the first half mostly on the strength of Ilias Kamardine’s 10 first half points.

Unfortunately, the Hogs responded with a pair of short range floaters and a pair of three pointers to stretch the halftime lead to 42-32.

The difference in the first half? Shooting. The Rebs shot 41 percent (12-29) from the floor and 26.7 percent (4-15) from long range while Arkansas was 54.8 percent (17-31) from the floor and 45.5 percent (5-11 from three point range. Arkansas had a slight edge in rebounding at intermission, 17-15.

The Rebels ended the game 31-61 from the field and 8-26 from three point range. Arkansas was 31-60 from the floor and 10-24 from three point. The Hogs got an edge at the free throw line hitting 22 or 30 freebies while Ole Miss was 17-21.

Dia and Ilias Kamardine ended up with 16 points apiece and Patton Pinkins added 10 points in the Rebels’ cause.

Hog point guard Darius Acuff led Arkansas with 26 points.

In the end, the Rebels were just a few plays short of a quality win, but they just couldn’t make it happen.

That’s the story of the season so far as the Rebs are now 8-7 overall and 0-2 in the SEC.

Comebacks are fine, but wins are finer.

Ole Miss needs to get one of those in the worst way.