Record student crowd in SJB Pavilion sees Ole Miss dominate Arkansas, 77-51
OXFORD, Miss. – The Ole Miss Rebels welcomed the students back to “Club Red” the day before the Spring semester in Oxford with a 77-51 victory over the Arkansas Razorbacks on Wednesday night.
Largest student attendance in the history of The Pavilion.
THANK YOU STUDENTS. Let’s do it again next Tuesday. Good luck with the start of classes tomorrow. #HottyToddy#WinInTheSip pic.twitter.com/zKZVjW9GWl— Chris Beard (@CoachBeard) January 25, 2024
THANK YOU @UMClubRed 🙌
LET’S HAVE A BIG SEMESTER 🤝#HottyToddy | #BuildTheCulture pic.twitter.com/4KDPtQ7qj3
— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) January 25, 2024
Defended Our House 😤#HottyToddy | #BuildTheCulture pic.twitter.com/dYHB0uklWD
— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) January 25, 2024
First Half
After a rough start in a loss to Auburn their last time out, the Rebels got hot early from the field Wednesday night versus the Razorbacks. Rebel forward Jaemyn Brakefield knocked down a 3-pointer to start things off, allowing Ole Miss to increase its lead to double digits quickly.
Rebel point guard Jaylen “JuJu” Murray commented postgame on how Ole Miss was able to bounce back after a couple of tough road losses last week.
“Most of the time, Coach Beard tells us that this is our team. This is a player-led team. So coming off back-to-back losses, we were just trying to figure out what we were doing wrong as a group. Whether it’s playing hard, not defending, not rebounding, that just translated over to the coaches giving us their point of view of what they see. We put it all together and had a couple good practices.”
~ JuJu Murray on the how the Rebels responded to back-to-back losses
After the Razorbacks finally got some shots to fall, Ole Miss answered by extending its lead to 10 once again via a ‘loud’ putback jam from Jamarion Sharp.
🫡 @Jaammaarion#HottyToddy x #BuildTheCulture pic.twitter.com/SX3gKgdq9s
— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) January 25, 2024
Midway through the first half, Ole Miss continued to have answers for Arkansas, keeping their lead in double digits to that point. JuJu Murray drained a triple to give the Rebels a 21-9 lead at the halfway mark.
Juju from the top of the key 👌 💰@JSMurray10 | #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/TeXFZqqUsK
— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) January 25, 2024
Over the next five minutes of the half, Ole Miss began to struggle from the field, going over three minutes without a basket. Arkansas went on a 14-8 run in the back half of the period, shrinking the Ole Miss lead to six at one point.
As the first half came to a close, the Rebels went on a 9-3 run to head to the break with a 38-26 lead.
Coach Beard spoke postgame about how the Rebels responded defensively tonight after the previous two games.
“Well, to me it started with the willingness and a desire to defend. JuJu said it best, we walked into the facility yesterday for practice and several of the players were already talking defense. As a coach, that’s not only good to see, that’s the only way to win. There’s no other way.”
~ Beard on the Ole Miss defensive performance
Matthew Murrell led the Rebels in scoring with 10 at the break. Brakfield was not far behind with nine as Ole Miss shot just under a 50% clip from the field.
OKAY 4️⃣😤@Jaemyn1 | #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/E9a2xdJu6s
— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) January 25, 2024
Second Half
Anytime Arkansas would string together some baskets, the Rebels would answer by going on a run. They did just that to begin the second half, going on a 10-3 run over the first five minutes.
Sharp continued to be a force in the paint on the defensive end as he was in the first half. The 7-footer quickly swatted away a couple shots early in the second half.
This will never get old ❌@Jaammaarion | #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/jLXtQgNrav
— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) January 25, 2024
JuJu Murray eventually became the second Rebel of the night to reach double digits after Murrell. Murray hit a wide open triple at the top of the key to extend the Ole Miss lead to 20 with 15 minutes to play.
+20@JSMurray10 | #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/K5tEhzRRfG
— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) January 25, 2024
Ole Miss began to run away with the game in the second half, keeping the lead at 15+ over the Razorbacks as Murray continued to catch fire.
Brakfield and Allen Flanigan also reached double digits in the second half, making it four Rebels in double figures. Although he didn’t necessarily light up the box score, Brakfield had many momentum-swinging plays for Ole Miss, including this ‘thunderous’ jam in the second half.
Clear For Takeoff 🛫@Jaemyn1 | #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/5duoBH5D4Z
— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) January 25, 2024
The Rebels were also doing something that they have struggled to do all season and that was completely out-rebounding their opponent. With five minutes to go in the game, Ole Miss had a +18 rebound differential over Arkansas.
“We had two guys in Moussa and Books (Sharp) with four offensive rebounds a piece, that’s elite…so that’s how it starts. How did we out-rebound an opponent? We had two guys get 8 offensive rebounds between them and that was good to see.”
~ Beard on the rebound differential
The buzzer eventually sounded, giving the Rebels their largest victory of the season with the 26 point win. Ole Miss out-rebounded Arkansas 43 to 28, which is also the largest rebound differential of the year for the Rebels.
JuJu Murray led the scoring with 21, Murrell wasn’t far behind with 18 and Flanigan recorded his 6th career double-double with 10 points and 11 boards.
Sixth Career Double-Double for @Allen_Flanigan2 🔥
10 Points | 11 Boards pic.twitter.com/tpL3MyGK4c
— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) January 25, 2024
“I think that this team has the talent to win every game on the schedule. I don’t think there’s anybody in college basketball that we can’t play with and beat in a 40-minute game…I believe in these players, we’re a work in progress. It’s not a coaching-speech cliche, it’s true.”
~ Beard on his belief in this team
Up Next
The Rebels will be back on the road, travelling to College Station on Saturday, January 27th to take on the Texas A&M Aggies. Tipoff is set for 7:30 CT on the SEC Network.
Kameron Wicker
Kam is a senior at Ole Miss, currently pursuing a degree in Journalism. Even though he's from Delhi, Louisiana, that didn't stop Kam from growing up a diehard Ole Miss fan. He's a sports guru who watches and follows all sports at all times. He lettered four years in football and baseball in high school and is an avid Saints, Pelicans, and Astros fan. In his free time, you can find him watching sports or at the rec participating in them.
