OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss is the closest SEC rival to Arkansas, but it was another long trip home for the Razorbacks’ basketball team after it played the Rebels on Tuesday night.

The Rebels beat the Razorbacks 81-72 at Tad Smith Coliseum before a crowd of 8, 168 to send Arkansas home with a loss on its visit to Ole Miss for the 11 th time in the past 12 years.

Arkansas (19-10, 8-7 SEC ) lost an opportunity to enhance its NCAA Tournament hopes after getting its most impressive victory of the season, 78-73 over now-No. 16 Vanderbilt on Saturday in Walton Arena.

The Razorbacks finished 2-6 in SEC road games losing five consecutive conference games away from home after winning earlier this season at Auburn and LSU.

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Ole Miss (20-9, 6-9 ) earned a regular-season split with Arkansas after the Razorbacks had won the teams’ first meeting 75-69 on Feb. 9.

Rebels senior forward Dwayne Curtis had game highs of 23 points and 11 rebounds.

“Curtis is a double-double guy,” Arkansas Coach John Pelphrey said. “If you don’t know that, you haven’t been paying attention, and he did it again tonight.”

Ole Miss also got a big game from sophomore guard David Huertas, who had a career-high 19 points and five assists.

Arkansas was led by sophomore guard Patrick Beverley (19 points ) and senior forward Darian Townes (18 points ).

Arkansas senior forward Sonny Weems, who came into the game averaging a team-high 15. 6 points, was held to five. He missed his first seven shots before hitting a three-point basket with 3: 47 left to pull the Razorbacks within 70-63.

Weems had been averaging 18. 9 points in SEC games to rank third in the conference before Tuesday night’s game.

Rebels sophomore guard Eniel Polynice guarded Weems much of the game, but got plenty of help from his teammates.

“They did a job on Sonny and gave him a lot of attention,” Pelphrey said. “Certainly they didn’t make it easy for him.

Weems finished 2 of 11 from the field, including 1 of 4 on three-point attempts.

“ Sonny didn’t have one of his better nights,” Pelphrey said.

Ole Miss took its largest lead, 66-51, on a driving basket and free throw by Huertas with 7: 37 left.

Arkansas outscored Ole Miss 13-4, including three-pointers by sophomore guard Stefan Welsh and Weems, to pull within 70-64 at the 3: 47 mark.

Razorbacks senior forward Vincent Hunter missed a threepoint attempt, then Huertas hit a three-pointer with 2: 09 left to push the Rebels’ lead to 73-66.

Beverley hit two free throws to make it 73-68, then stole the ball with 1: 30 left. But Arkansas couldn’t score on that possession after Beverley had a three-point attempt blocked.

The Rebels hit 8 of 12 free throws in the final 1: 19, including 3 of 4 each by Curtis and Huertas, to hold off the Razorbacks and improve to 14-2 at home this season.

“About the time you thought it was over with, we worked ourselves back into it,” Pelphrey said. “But we just were not capable of making some shots that would get it to a one-possession game.”

Ole Miss forward Jermey Parnell, a senior from Gosnell, had eight points and four rebounds in 21 minutes off the bench.

The Rebels shot 50. 9 percent from the field (28 of 55 ) and outrebounded the Razorbacks 37-33.

Arkansas shot 43. 3 percent from the field (29 of 67 ), including 26. 3 percent on three-point attempts (5 of 19 ).

“There were timely toughness plays we lost,” Pelphrey said. “That’s happened to us this year before, and I feel like that happened again.

“ They made some great efforts on second-chance opportunities and some loose balls.

“ Give them credit, they played well. We have a lot of respect for Mississippi.”

Arkansas senior guard Gary Ervin scored on a driving layup with 31 seconds left in the first half to pull the Razorbacks within 39-35 at halftime after they had trailed by as many as 12 points. The Razorbacks conclude the regular season against Auburn on Saturday at Walton Arena, then have a first-round bye in the SEC Tournament as the West’s No. 2 seed and will play in the quarterfinals March 14 in Atlanta at the Georgia Dome.

Arkansas’ only victory at Ole Miss in the past 12 years was 66-65 in 2006.