Ole Miss coach Kermit Davis watched his team do a lot of good things against visiting Arkansas on Wednesday night, but shooting the basketball from the field was definitely not one of them.
The Razorbacks (15-5, 5-3) held the Rebels (10-10, 2-6) to just 35 percent field goal shooting (19 of 55) while taking a 64-55 road victory.
It was the same Ole Miss roster that shot 74 percent in the second half of Monday’s 70-54 win over visiting Florida in Oxford.
“You know, I hate to say it but I told our team this, it was just the inability to shot make,” Davis said. “I thought our teams were really trying to be physical. We knew going into the game they had made the most free throws of anybody in college basketball and we won that battle 13 to 8.
“Really good rebounding team and we only gave up four offensive rebounds in that game. We out-rebounded them. It was just the inability for our guys to make offensive shots.”
JD Notae, the SEC’s leading scorer, had a game-high 25 points for Arkansas while Jaylin Williams added 18 points, 8 rebounds, 3 blocks and 3 assists for the Razorbacks. Arkansas has won five straight league game after opening conference play 0-3.
Trey Wade chipped in 12 points while going 5 of 5 from the field, making both his 3-pointers and also dishing 5 assists for the Razorbacks.
“Two guys that were projected to be first team all-league,” Davis said. “Those guys did it. They had 43 of the 64. Wade came in and played.”
Davis believes putting Wade into the starting line up has helped make Arkansas tougher and the the Razorbacks have held five straight foes under 40 percent field goal shooting.
“Arkansas is a physical team,” Davis said. “They’re all alike sizes. They’ve inserted Trey Wade in there, the transfer from Wichita State, and he’s given them a little more toughness. They’re not as fast and dynamic in the transition as they used to be.”
Notae hit a deep 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer that surged Arkansas ahead 30-23 and gave him 14 points before intermission.
“You know Notae just kind of dominated the game, the whole game,” Davis said. “Williams shot the ball well tonight. He had not shot it very well. I thought we had some runs, but we could never get over the hump. We had shot after shot after shot and we just couldn’t make shots."
Not all of those misses were contested per Davis.
“I just thought we had shot after shot after shot, mid-range shots, open around the goal," Davis said. " I don’t know, give Arkansas credit. They’re a physical team. I don’t know. Gosh, at times, we’ve done that through the year. Really, if you hold Arkansas, which is a good offensive team, to 64 points, you think you win.”
It was OIe Miss’ third game in five days after having lost at Mississippi State on Saturday and beating Florida.
Arkansas, which has now won eight of its last nine games with Ole Miss, only played eight with Davonte “Devo” Davis playing 22 minutes, Kamani Johnson seven and Chris Lykes one off the bench.
“I don’t think fatigue was any factor at all tonight,” Davis said about his team. “None at all. They don’t play many guys either. I thought we played really hard. We tried to play really physical. I just don’t think the opportune times we had chances to be right there in that game we just couldn’t make plays.”
Davis is in his 34th year as a college head coach.
“Yeah, that’s what sometimes as you get older in the business, there’s so much analytics,” Davis said. “You try to fall back on all this. But sometimes it’s pretty simple. It’s bit us five or six times this year, just the inability at opportune times where a guy goes in and makes a great play, he gets fouled, makes a timely 3. The games that we’ve won, we’ve done that. We’ve made plays.”
That did not happen during a 13-0 run that allowed Arkansas to turn a 43-40 lead with 9:53 remaining into a 56-40 advantage with 4:28 left.
“Tonight, in that period of time, I think they went on a 10 or 12 point run when that game was right in the balance,” Davis said.
“If somebody would tell you we’d out-do Arkansas - they lead our league almost in paint points - I’d say there’s no question we’d win the game. Those were all the things we were trying to emphasize… just look at every situation except for the 35 percent shooting.”
Davis was also miffed about a couple of Rebels letting Arkansas beat them back down court to score.
“Again I thought an area where we struggled with was we had two guys celebrating a play, like they are high school kids, instead of running back and getting back on defense," he said. "We have guys doing this right here (Davis taps himself on head). I think that has happened to us three or four times this year.”