It wasnt’t pretty, but Arkansas got the job done and left Oxford with a 75-64 road win. There was some abysmal shooting in the first half, and in the second Arkansas took advantage of an Ole Miss team that looked very low on confidence. At one point jn the first half, Ole Miss had a stretch of making one of 22 shots. They looked shot after that and never really recovered.
After trailing early in the half, Arkansas took advantage of that dry spell and took an 11 point lead into halftime. The Hogs had a 13 point lead when the Rebels made their big push, an 11-0 run to cut the lead to two. Arkansas never completely faltered though, a couple of times Ole Miss cut the lead to one, but never took the lead. The Hogs had an answer each time.
Arkansas got their final run started when back to back threes from Anton Beard and Darious Hall stretched a 53-52 lead up to 59-52 right before a media timeout. That swing took whatever was left out of Ole Miss’ sails and the Hogs took control from there.
It wasn’t a big night for either Daryl Macon or Jaylen Barford. They both had poor shooting nights, but Daniel Gafford led the way with 19 points. Hall was the crucial piece to the win, he had a double double of 14 points and 11 boards.
Yes, the Hogs were playing a team that was broken from the year. While Ole Miss is just seeing out the year, this win showed some real growth. Earlier in the year, if Macon and Barford had poor nights on the road, this team had no shot. This game, freshmen picked up the team and made the plays needed for a win.