NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Arkansas will be the last team to play at the SEC Tournament.
The Razorbacks will open against Ole Miss, a team trying to take one of the last spots in the NCAA Tournament.
No. 3 seed Arkansas (23-8) will face No. 6 seed Ole Miss (20-12) Friday at approximately 8:30 p.m. in the last of four quarterfinal round games at Bridgestone Arena.
The Rebels beat Missouri 86-74 Thursday. DeAndre Burnett had 23 points, Terence Davis 19 and Sebastian Saiz 14 points and 16 rebounds to lead Ole Miss.
“That was a thing of beauty,” Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said sarcastically of two teams that both barely shot better than 40 percent. “Anybody want a copy of that? We will get your guys a copy so you can view it tonight.
“But at this time of year it is just about having the opportunity to stay and play again and that’s what we did. We had some really good moments.
“It was kind of a capsule of our season. We have moments when we look like we are a really good basketball team and then we will make some mental errors.”
Arkansas downed Ole Miss 98-80 on Feb. 18 with junior guard Daryl Macon scoring a career-high 30 points.
Jaylen Baford added 15, Anton Beard 11 and Moses Kingsley had 14 points, 13 rebounds and 4 blocks in a game in which the Razorbacks led 46-37 at halftime and outscored the Rebels 51-12 in bench points.
“We will tape them up, roll them out there and hopefully we will play better than we did in our first outing in Fayetteville,” Kennedy said.
“Really everything (we have to do better). They really controlled it. I remember Daryl Macon was really shooting the ball well, they extended us and killed us on the glass and we were very inefficient on offense.”
Kingsley had one of his better games of the year in the win.
"Rim protector, very athletic, monster on the glass and he dominated us," Kennedy said. "...He's a really good player.
"They have got a good team, a team that is going to the NCAA Tournament. We are going to have to be on top of our game tomorrow night."
Kennedy, whose team has won eight of its last 11 games but knows it has to win the SEC Tournament to make the NCAA Tournament, said that having played a game before meeting Arkansas has both its positives and negatives.
Missouri had rallied from 10 down to force overtime against Auburn on Wednesday night and eventually won 86-83 for coach Kim Anderson, who was fired coming into the tournament.
“Really we are just trying to win two games in two days right now and the rest will take care of itself,” Kennedy said. “The first one is always the most difficult.
“I really do believe that the team that played the night before - Missouri in this case - and it will be our advantage tomorrow night having played and gotten a (win) and seen the ball go in this basket in this facility because obviously this is a big moment for these guys, even thought it was a little less than capacity crowd. I saw a couple of empty seats from my vantage point.
“It is a big building, it’s a big stage, it has different feel and I think Arkansas will have to deal with some of that, but the fatigue factor does kick in and I did think Missouri was tired at the end.”
Burnett, who had 16 of his points in the first half, had a great game for a guy whose knees are hurting and who had to miss the regular season finale win over South Carolina.
He made his first six shots from the field and finished 6 of 9 from the field, 4 of 5 from 3-point range and 7 of 11 from the free throw line.
“Any time you make your first shot, all the pain goes out of the way,” Burnett said. “I was just trying to battle through and play hard for my team. That was just my mindset coming into the game.”
Kennedy said it was a young man battling through pain.
“This is going to be a situation that is evaluated when the season is over and thankfully that is not tonight,” Kennedy said. “He is a warrior. Dre plays hard, but he moves at a snail’s pace anyway so it really doesn’t matter much.
“We will throw a couple more strands of tape on there…We are going to tape him up and see if we can roll him back out there tomorrow God-willing.”
WEDNESDAY
Mississippi State 79, LSU 62
Missouri 86, Auburn 83 (OT)
THURSDAY
Georgia 59, Tennessee 57
Alabama 75,. Mississippi State 55
Vanderbilt 66, Texas A&M 41
Ole Miss 86, Missouri 74
FRIDAY
Georgia vs. Kentucky, noon
South Carolina vs. Alabama, 2 p.m.
Florida vs. Vanderbilt, 6 p.m.
Arkansas vs. Ole Miss, 8:30 p.m.
SATURDAY
Semifinals, Noon and 2 p.m.
SUNDAY
Championship game, Noon