NORMAN, Okla. — Rotnei Clarke walked the hallway near the Arkansas locker room in the Lloyd Noble Center with a slight limp and a bag of ice wrapped on the front of his left knee.

Clarke was tired, battered and bruised after being defended ferociously throughout Arkansas’ 67-47 loss to Oklahoma on Wednesday night.

The sophomore, labeled by some as best shooter in the country, entered a press conference in his home state after hitting only 1 of his 6 three-point attempts and knew exactly what kind of questions he would face.

Just as he expected plenty of attention when he took the court against the Sooners’ defense, led by Cade Davis’ pressure in man-to-man.

“I pretty much expect it every time I step on the floor now,” Clarke said of the defensive attention. “Being from Oklahoma and knowing some of the staff, and knowing some of the guys on the team, they knew what I was pretty much going to do anyway. They did a good job preparing and played good defense.”

The all-time leading scorer in Oklahoma’s high school history, Clarke ran hard all night but couldn’t get open off screens. He found most of his success driving to the basket, scoring 8 points on drives, floaters and layups.

A fan in the stands even kept a running tally of Clarke’s misses on a board he held proudly above his head during timeouts. “Bottom line is, Rotnei gets a lot of attention every single night,” Arkansas Coach John Pelphrey said. “... Cade Davis did a tremendous job tonight working. He worked his tail off and he also make some great plays on offense, but Oklahoma’s team, they gave a lot of help. It’s a team defense. Not one guy out there goes out there and stops anybody.”

Davis, meanwhile, got the best of Clarke on offense and defense.

“Straight denial, no catch, chase, don’t go underneath screens,” Davis explained his approach to defending Arkansas’ leading scorer. “Basically, just match up with him one-on-one.”

On offense, Davis hit three treys and scored 11 points, helping the Sooners hit 7 of 8 three-pointers near the end of first half and start of the second half.

“I’m exhausted,” said Davis.

Arkansas (2-5) led 22-14 with 3:48 remaining in the first half, but bad perimeter defense by the Hogs popped up just as it had in the first six games.

The Razorbacks were also slow on offense, and hit only two baskets in the first 11 minutes of the second half. Meanwhile, the Sooners were on a 25-5 run.

And Clarke was quiet.

The sophomore sharp-shooter’s lone three-pointer came with 2:35 remaining, and cut the Sooners’ lead to 60-46.

Oklahoma prepared plenty for Clarke. So much so that two former Oklahoma players were asked to participate in the Sooners’ practices this week to imitate Clarke’s shooting touch beyond the arc.

No way should the Sooners allow the Razorback who was averaging 26.7 points a game hit the 10-point mark.

Late in the game, Oklahoma Coach Jeff Capel reminded Davis of that during a timeout.

Then Clarke hit his lone three-pointer, which was a wide-open look. Davis looked to the Oklahoma bench and shrugged.

“I jinxed him, probably,” Capel said.

But the job was done.

Davis and Oklahoma held Clarke in check, and put the Hogs’ biggest scoring threat underneath the basket — Marshawn Powell — in foul trouble early.

Arkansas managed to climb within 51-43 thanks to Powell, who was playing with four fouls, with 7:32 remaining. The freshman scored 8 of his team-high 12 points during the run, but Oklahoma’s defense held tough and the Sooners sealed the game with free throws.

Arkansas was also held to its lowest scoring total in more than five years, when the Hogs lost to Ole Miss, 55-45, on March 6, 2004.

And this defensive performance came from a young Oklahoma team which had struggled in man-to-man defense. Looking for something to spark the Sooners, Capel even installed several zone defenses after a three-game skid during a tournament in Alaska. The coach was not sure whether to run a man-to-man defense minutes before tipoff, but chose to stick with it throughout the night.

And it paid off, 19 days after Clarke scored a school-record 51 points.

Powell and Clarke received a couple of smiles and a pat on the knee near the end of their press conference Wednesday night in the Lloyd Noble Center. Pelphrey reminded a confused Powell that, yes, the Hogs will practice Thursday.

Arkansas needs all the help it can get after its worst start since the Hogs started the 1970-71 season with a 1-6 record.

“Just to let you know right now, our bolts and our beliefs, they’re strong,” Pelphrey said. “They’re riveted in there hard and it’s because of guys like this. They’ll show up tomorrow with a ferociousness and a hard working attitude that you really, really appreciate as a coach.”

Brandon Marcello is the online editor of WholeHogSports.com.