Arkansas Razorbacks 98, Ole Miss Rebels 80: Highlight Reel

It was a straight up party in Bud Walton Arena Saturday afternoon against Ole Miss.

With a big crowd that was helped by the opening weekend of baseball season (and Arkansas is 2-0 to start out) the basketball team held up their end of the bargain by providing a very exciting couple of hours against Ole Miss.

This was a back-and-forth game for a few minutes, but Arkansas took the lead for good when Dustin Thomas hit a pair of free throws five minutes into the game. Trey Thompson then dunked off a no-look left-handed laser pass from Jaylen Barford and the Hogs were off and running.

The Razorbacks led by nine at halftime but blew the game open in the second half when they went on a 19-0 run to push the lead to 24 with 11:17 remaining. It was all garbage time after that.

Daryl Macon led the way with a season-high-for-any-Razorback 30 points on 10-13 shooting including 6-9 from beyond the arc. And he came off the bench. Moses Kingsley, Anton Beard, and Barford all reached double figures as well. Kingsley had a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds, and tacked on 4 blocks to go along with it. Kingsley even got in on the Dikembe Mutombo finger-wave after a couple of powerful blocks.

Bobby Portis was back in town since the NBA is on All-Star break and approved of the performance.

We should also give a shoutout to Trey Thompson. This was probably his best game of the season. He had 8 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists (although it felt like more than 3). He had a couple of great outlet passes that resulted in points at the other end of the court.

As for what this means for the postseason, not a ton. It obviously helps inasmuch as losing would have been pretty bad. Ole Miss is a top-100 team so this is a quality win.

It also helps Arkansas keep the driver’s seat for the 4-seed in the SEC Tournament. The Hogs are currently tied for 4th place with Alabama but the Hogs own tiebreakers over the Tide, as well as Tennessee and Ole Miss who are a couple of games back. Arkansas also holds the tiebreaker over South Carolina if the Gamecocks drop a couple more games. Arkansas is in good position right now.