Belmont transfer Malik Dia shined as No. 23 Ole Miss survived late comeback attempts by Arkansas to mount the Rebels’ first win in Fayetteville in a decade, leaving Bud Walton Arena with a 73-66 victory.
Dia had a season-high 21 points and eight rebounds in the contest. Sean Pedulla scored 16 and Dre Davis accounted for 10 points as Jaylen Murray facilitated with six assists in the road win.
Ole Miss (13-2, 2-0 SEC) opened up on the wrong side of a 10-1 run as Davis was called for two quick fouls. Murray hit the Rebels’ first field goal nearly five minutes into the contest. After successfully working toward a bit of a comeback, Ole Miss still struggled to completely eat into its foe’s lead.
Arkansas guard Johnell Davis landed a trio of three-pointers to put the Razorbacks up 27-18, placing the Rebels behind the 8-ball once more. Sean Pedulla stole momentum back, earning a three-shot trip to the charity stripe to cut the deficit. Dia slammed a momentum-garnering dunk and Pedulla splashed a triple to have the game knotted up 33-33 at halftime.
Davon Barnes and Matthew Murrell nailed threes at the start of the second half, aiding in Ole Miss going on a 17-7 run to quiet the Bud Walton Arena crowd. Though the Rebels led 50-40 with 14:23 left in the contest, the door leading to an Arkansas comeback was not quite shut.
A culmination of free throws, a dunk by Adou Thiero, and a Karter Knox triple tilted the pendulum in the Razorbacks’ favor as Arkansas cut its deficit to seven points with just over six minutes left on the clock.
Murray shook off a rough shooting performance and hit a jumper and Pedulla made a layup for Ole Miss to reclaim a double-digit lead. Arkansas, leaning on free throws due to the Rebels’ defense stifling the ability to find quality looks, was able to get within six points at the 2:22 mark.
Dia nailed a three-pointer with just over a minute remaining in the game to put the nail in the coffin, guiding Ole Miss to the road win. The Rebels lacked Mikeal Brown-Jones, who suffered an apparent head injury versus Georgia, on Wednesday night.
Arkansas, which suffered multiple lengthy scoring droughts in the contest, scored by committee. Thiero led the way with 17 points. Davis had 15 points and was joined by Boogie Fland and D.J. Wagner in amassing double-digits on the scoreboard.
The Razorbacks were immensely ineffective from deep, only landing five of 23 three-point tries. Whereas Ole Miss made nine of 23 from behind the arc.
Chris Beard’s Rebels won the rebounding battle, securing one more board than their counterpart. Ole Miss also turned the ball over one fewer time than Arkansas and was responsible for five steals in the hard-fought victory.
Next up for the Rebels is a Saturday afternoon matchup against LSU. The game will tip off at 5 p.m. and will be broadcast on the SEC Network as well as participating SuperTalk Mississippi stations.
