Razorback report: Notae goes for 25 vs. Rebels

Arkansas guard JD Notae drives past Ole Miss guard Daeshun Ruffin during the Razorbacks’ victory Wednesday night at The Pavilion in Oxford, Miss. Notae led all scorers with 25 points. (Razorback Athletics/Gunnar Rathbun)

University of Arkansas guard JD Notae, the SEC’s leading scorer, took a load of shots but he managed to provide a breakthrough with 25 points in what was largely a defensive slugfest in the Razorbacks’ 64-55 win at Ole Miss on Wednesday.

Notae made 10 of 23 shots, including 4 of 10 from three-point range and 1 of 2 free throws to lead all scorers. The 6-2 guard, whose endorsement deal with the Hunt family’s name, image and likeness organization called the Athlete Advocate Consortium was announced on Wednesday, scored 39% of his team’s points and 21% of all the points.

“We’re just going to take what the defense gives us,” Notae said. “We normally want to get to the paint. We’re a paint type of team, but tonight, I mean, they were leaving us open, so we just stepped up and shot it with confidence.”

Notae had his fifth game with 25-plus points this season, and his first since scoring 31 during a loss at Texas A&M on Jan. 8. Notae has scored in double figures in all 19 games he has played this season.

“I thought he was awesome,” Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman said. “You’re asking him to do a lot by scoring and also being a point guard.”

Ole Miss guard Austin Crowley, who guarded Notae for a stretch of the game, said he tried to rattle Notae but couldn’t get it done.

“JD stayed poised,” Crowley said on the Ole Miss Radio Network. “I kept trying to talk to him, trying to get in his head, but he stayed poised.”

Former Florida forward Patric Young, now an analyst with the SEC Network, was duly impressed with Notate at halftime.

“Who can stop JD Notae?” Young asked. “He can score in every single way. And as we’ve seen he can score from deep.”

Bad shooting

Ole Miss made 34.5% of its field goal tries (19 of 55). The Rebels were even worse from three-point range at 4 of 18 (22.2%)

Arkansas has held each of its last five opponents to 40% shooting or worse during its five-game winning streak. According to HogStats.com, it is the first time since the 1981-82 season the Razorbacks have held five consecutive conference opponents to sub-40% field goal shooting.

FT story

Ole Miss shot 100% from the free throw line on a 13 for 13 performance. The Razorbacks were also 100% (2 for 2) until the final 1:15, when the Rebels were intentionally fouling while facing a double-figure deficit.

Arkansas, which ranks second nationally in free throws taken, struggled to get to the foul line until the very end. The Razorbacks finished 8 of 12 for 66.7%. Their performance included missed front ends of one-and-one opportunities by Jaylin Williams and Trey Wade on back-to-back trips with just over one minute remaining.

“I did think early on we settled for too many threes, and that allowed us not to get in the early bonus in the first half,” Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman said. “The name of the game is just to try to win. We’re not trying to just draw free throws because we lead the country in that category.

“Tonight you have to credit the opposition for understanding that FTAs is a big part of our game from an offensive standpoint. They kind of took that away. You have to tip your hat to Coach [Kermit] Davis for not putting his guys in position to foul on our dribble-drive penetration.”

Williams’ stats

Arkansas forward Jaylin Williams filled up the stat sheet yet again, though he came short of logging what would have been his fifth double-double in six games.

Williams had 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting, including 2 of 3 from three-point range, and added a game-high 8 rebounds, 3 blocked shots, 3 assists, 2 steals. Williams also drew two charges to increase his team-high total to 25.

“[JD] Notae with 25 and Williams with 18,” Ole Miss Coach Kermit Davis said on the Ole Miss Radio Network. “Two guys that were projected to be first team all-league. Those guys did it. They had 43 of the 64 [points].”

All JD

Guard JD Notae had a productive outcome late in the game in which he never gave the ball up during a 26-second possession.

After Ole Miss had cut its deficit to 56-42 on a pair of Daeshun Ruffin free throws, the Razorbacks inbounded to Notae, who slowly dribbled across half court and worked right and then left. With the shot clock dipping under 10, Notae drove the left side of the lane and knocked down a 13-footer with 4 seconds left on the clock to make it 58-42 with 3:40 remaining. That would stand as the Razorbacks’ final made field goal as Ole Miss began fouling late in the game.

Wade made

Arkansas forward Trey Wade made both of his three-point attempts and joined JD Notae and Jaylin Williams in double figures with 12 points on 5-of-5 shooting. Wade, a Wichita State transfer, had his second-best scoring night as a Razorback, trailing the 17 points he scored in an 87-43 rout of Missouri on Jan. 12.

Feed for slam

Jaylin Williams’ passing and court awareness has drawn praise since his playing time got a boost last season and he showed some of it late in the first half.

Williams had the ball near the top of the lane when his man and Au’Diese Toney’s man, Matthew Murrell, doubled up on him. Toney, seeing Murrell had turned his back to him, slashed toward the rim, where Williams spotted him and dealt for an easy dunk and a 20-17 Arkansas lead.

Board beat

Arkansas lost the rebounding battle 33-31. It marked the first time in six games the Razorbacks have been beaten on the glass.

6 in 31

Arkansas had a productive end to a sluggish first half with a pair of three pointers in the final 31 seconds to build a 30-23 lead.

Jaylin Williams nailed a three-pointer from the left wing, his sixth of the season in 22 attempts, on a pass from Trey Wade at the 31-second mark.

Ole Miss ran the clock down and set up a nice alley-oop from Austin Crowley to 7-footer Nysier Brooks for a lay-in with 6.5 seconds remaining.

The Razorbacks hurried down and JD Notae sank a three-pointer, with contact by Crowley, as the halftime buzzer sounded.

All dark

Arkansas wore all-red jerseys, but the Rebels did not dress in home whites. They wore baby blue tops and shorts. The Razorbacks wore a new outfit that included wider stripes down the sides of the jersey and shorts that was composed of gray and white camouflage.

At the tip

Arkansas used the same starting line up of guards JD Notae, Au’Diese Toney and Stanley Umude and forwards Trey Wade and Jaylin Williams. The opening quintet combined for 62 of the team’s 54 points, with Umude going scoreless and Kamani Johnson pitching in the only bench points with a first-half putback.