Mississippi mishaps

Rebels’ rebounding leaves Hogs reeling

Mississippi guard Rasheed Brooks (14) drives the lane against Arkansas Razorbacks guard Anthlon Bell (5) during an NCAA college basketball game on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016, in Oxford, Miss. (Bruce Newman /The Oxford Eagle via AP)

OXFORD, Miss. -- One Mississippi. Two Mississippi. Zero Arkansas.

Ole Miss beat Arkansas 76-60 Saturday at The Pavilion before an announced sellout crowd of 9,500 to end a winless week in Mississippi for the Razorbacks.

Mississippi State started the Razorbacks' lost week by pounding them 78-46 Tuesday night in Starkville.

"It's not been one of my better weeks," Razorbacks Coach Mike Anderson said. "But I've been around a long time, and I know how it works.

"It's not easy to win on the road, and obviously we don't have the full contingent I've love to have."

Arkansas lost its top two scorers from last season when SEC player of the year Bobby Portis and Michael Qualls left with eligibility remaining to enter the NBA Draft, signee Ted Kapita never got academically eligible and forward Jacorey Williams was dismissed for disciplinary reasons.

"Our guys are giving it everything they have, but the inexperience bug is what bites us," Anderson said. "You need that experience, especially this time of the year.

"You've got to have that leadership and that ownership taking place. I think that's been the shortcomings of this team right now."

Ole Miss outrebounded Arkansas 47-29, including 18 offensive rebound, to help the Rebels to a 15-4 advantage in second-chance points.

"That's an effort stat," Ole Miss Coach Andy Kennedy said. "That huge discrepancy on the glass shows we were really engaged."

Senior guard Stefan Moody led the Rebels (16-9, 6-6) with 17 points and 7 assists, but the SEC's top scorer was 4 of 17 from the field and committed 7 turnovers. Moody came into the game averaging 23.3 points.

The Rebels got big contributions from senior forwards Tomasz Gielo (15 points, 5 rebounds), Anthony Perez (11 points, 8 rebounds) and Sebastian Saiz (11 points, 4 rebounds) and sophomore forward Marcanvis Hymon (10 points, 11 rebounds)

"You always worry about those other guys going off, and they did," Anderson said.

The Razorbacks (12-13, 5-7) jumped out to a 19-8 lead during the first 10 minutes, but they couldn't sustain the early success.

Ole Miss cut Arkansas' lead to 37-35 by halftime, then outscored the Razorbacks 17-5 to open the second half to move ahead 52-42 on Perez's three-point basket with 11:25 left.

The Razorbacks didn't pull closer than seven points the rest of the game.

"Ole Miss rose to the occasion in the second half," Anderson said. "They got in a better rhythm."

The Rebels shot 50 percent in the second half (12 of 24) compared to 17.9 percent for the Razorbacks (5 of 28).

"I thought their defense was OK, but we missed some easy buckets," Anderson said. "They were switching everything, and we didn't do a good job of exploiting that when they switched."

Arkansas junior center Moses Kingsley had 19 points and hit 8 of 11 shots, but the rest of the Razorbacks were 10 for 47.

"We got some of the shots that we wanted, but we've got to knock them down," said Arkansas senior guard Anthlon Bell, who scored 17 points but shot 3 of 14. "You can credit their defense, too. They played us hard all game and they stuck with it."

Razorbacks junior guard Dusty Hannahs, averaging a team-high 16.5 points, was held scoreless in 16 foul-plagued minutes and shot 0 of 4. Starting point guard Jabril Durham shot 0 of 7 and sophomore guard Anton Beard was 2 of 10.

Kingsley scored 15 points the first half when he made 7 of 8, but was 1 of 3 and had 4 of his 5 turnovers in the second half.

"They started coming at him and trapping him," Anderson said. "They paid attention to him."

Kennedy said the Rebels did a good job of not allowing Kingsley to get the ball with room to operate and taking away his moves with his right hand over his left shoulder.

"I thought we shrunk the floor better," Kennedy said. "We also did a much better job of forcing him to the right shoulder, where he's not nearly as comfortable."

Kingsley had a game-high 13 rebounds, but he accepted the blame for Arkansas' rebounding problems.

"They got a lot of long rebounds and we didn't put ourselves in position to get those rebounds -- including me," Kingsley said. "They got the best of us."

Anderson said not being able to get rebounds negated what at times was good defense by the Razorbacks.

"I thought they outhustled us to those rebounds," Anderson said. "That comes down to the toughness part that you've got to have on the road."

Ole Miss started 4 of 16 from the field and found itself down by 11, but shot 20 of 44 the rest of the game.

"I thought we were awfully tentative to start the game," Kennedy said. "Arkansas was the aggressor.

"We were pouting a little bit. We allowed our game to be dictated by whether or not we were making shots.

"Once we settled down about midway through the half, we made a couple of shots and relaxed a little bit."

The Razorbacks hit 20 of 26 free throws, but the Rebels were even better, hitting 21 of 22, including 9 of 10 by Moody.

"It shows we were locked in mentally," Kennedy said. "Maybe we are serious about trying to make a run down the stretch."

The Razorbacks will try to make a stretch run with four of their final six SEC games at home, including the next three against Auburn, Missouri and LSU.

"It's been a pretty difficult week, but we can't get our heads down," Bell said. "We've still got several games left, and we want to go out with a bang."

Sports on 02/14/2016