Rebels spoil Senior Day, earn No. 2 seed

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Rebels spoil Senior Day, earn No. 2 seed

Date: 2010-03-07T03:33:36.477
Author: Jimmy Carter
Editor note: Freshman Glenn Bryant and the Razorbacks struggled down the stretch of their fifth consecutive loss
Number of Views: 204

Ole Miss led the contest for less than one minute, but guard Chris Warren stepped up down the stretch and the Rebels (21-9, 9-7 Southeastern Conference) rallied to clinch the SEC West No. 2 seed with a 68-66 win over Arkansas.

The Razorbacks (14-17, 7-9) blew an 11-point lead with five minutes remaining on Senior Day and lost their fifth consecutive game. Arkansas is now ineligible for the NIT and and can only make the postseason by winning the SEC Tournament to receive the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Hogs are the SEC West’s No. 3 seed and play Georgia Thursday in the first round of the conference tournament.

“It didn’t end the way we wanted to, that goes without saying,” Arkansas coach John Pelphrey said. “It was a tough day. Mississippi kept playing. I thought we had a lot of things go against us the last three minutes, loose balls, offensive rebounds and opportunities to score. Today we didn’t capitalize on a lot of good opportunities we had.

“Give Mississippi credit, they kept playing and made some great plays.”

Warren scored 31 points and his go-ahead 3-pointer with 53.2 seconds left gave the Rebels their first lead of the game. The junior finished 11-for-17 from the field and knocked down 5-of-9 from 3-point range. The Rebels outscored Arkansas 15-2 in the final 5:22 of the contest.

“Obviously Chris Warren has been tremendous for us,” Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said. “He’s the guy you want with the ball in his hands (in the clutch). He continued to keep us in the game with his offense.”

Warren knocked down the eventual game-winner after the Rebels came up with an offensive rebound when sophomore forward Murphy Holloway missed the front end of a one-and-one.

“Murphy misses so badly that people have a hard time playing the carom except his teammates, because we see him every day,” Kennedy said. “He missed so bad that his teammate, his roommate (sophomore forward Terrance Henry) figured it out and got his hand on the ball.

“It’s almost like an offensive rebound in a halfcourt set, it’s difficult to match up with shooters and that’s where Chris (Warren) got a rhythm 3-pointer. As an all-league player, that’s what all-league players do and he knocked it down.”

The Rebels made just 2-of-5 from the free throw line in the closing minute of the contest, but Arkansas was unable to take advantage of the misses. The Razorbacks also let nine seconds run off the clock before fouling Warren with just 11 seconds remaining.

“That was a blown assignment. I believe it was Marcus (Britt),” Pelphrey said. “I think he actually told guys not to foul at one point in time when they crossed halfcourt. We had just done it the time before and we made a bad play.

Warren made just 1-of-2 from the foul line, but Nobles’ driving lay-up was blocked by Holloway with two seconds remaining and senior forward Mike Washington’s desperation 12-foot fadeaway jumper barely grazed the front of the rim as time expired.

“I thought we defended it fairly well,” Kennedy said. “Nobles did what players have to do as you start getting some game pressure on you, there’s four, three (seconds). You really don’t have time to make a pass to get a decent look. He drove it at the basket, Murphy reacted to the ball and showed some athleticism by getting his hand on a huge ball.”

Pelphrey said the play had been drawn up for sophomore guard Rotnei Clarke.

“We wanted to get Rotnei coming free off the double screen,” Pelphrey said. “We didn’t get to it. Julysses thought he had a driving lane and it’s a two-point game so we didn’t need a three. It didn’t work out for us, we didn’t get either one.”

Nobles played down the stretch in place of starting point guard Courtney Fortson. Fortson struggled with foul trouble and fouled out with 56 seconds remaining. Nobles scored an SEC-best 11 points and provided a spark off the bench in the first half. He scored eight points while playing the final four minutes of the opening half and hit a fadeaway 18-footer with two seconds remaining to give the Hogs a 43-33 halftime advantage.

“The play at the end he went very hard to the basket and he almost got a 3-point play the possession before,” Pelphrey said. “By no means was that a bad play. I thought he played very well. Probably the best all year in terms of scoring when we needed it.”

Junior guard Marcus Britt said the Hogs suffered from Fortson’s absence with the game in the balance.

“It affected us at the end because Courtney draws so much attention when he drives the ball,” Britt said. “They’ll leave people like Rotnei open. So it kind of affected us.”

The Hogs lost in the final Razorback home game for Washington, guard Stef Welsh and forward Stephen Cox.

“We were trying to make them have a memory they’ll never forget and win the game,” Britt said. “We came out real emotional. We didn’t get the job done. We’ve got to move on to the next game.”

Clarke led the Razorbacks with 13 points and Britt chipped in 12. The Hogs led by 11 points twice in the second half but couldn’t hold the Rebels off.

“We competed really hard and controlled almost the whole game. Allowing them to come back at the then end is pretty tough to take. It’s always tough when you’re losing is tough. You’ve just got to take some positive things from it and try to learn from it. We can definitely turn it around. We can always do that.

“It’s not easy going into the tournament like that, but once we get there we’re not thinking about the five-game losing streak and how many games we’ve lost. We’re thinking about making a run in the tournament.”

Arkansas used a 19-4 run to break open a tie early in the game and forced 13 Ole Miss turnovers in the first half. The Rebels shot just 43 percent from the field for the game.

“I thought we were very good defensively all game long,” Pelphrey said.

The Razorbacks’ inside duo of senior Mike Washington and freshman Marshawn Powell combined for just 17 points, including just seven in the second half. Washington and Powell combined for 41 points and 17 rebounds in Arkansas’ 80-73 win Jan. 31 at Ole Miss.

“I thought our big guys did a better job of not allowing them to get deep touches,” Kennedy said. “They obviously have us outsized. Before help can get there they were overpowering us in the first outing. When they did we were certainly very help-conscious.”

The Hogs play Georgia at 8:45 p.m. Thursday in the SEC Tournament’s opening round in Nashville, Tenn. Arkansas will enter the tournament having lost six of its last seven games and losing sole possession of the Western division lead in late February.

“We’re going to have to get back here and obviously start working,” Pelphrey said. “We were very fortunate against Georgia the first time. Like they all are, it’ll be very challenging.

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