Mississippi-Arkansas Preview

After faltering again on the road, Arkansas will get the benefit of playing its next two games at home.

The 19th-ranked Razorbacks will try to take advantage beginning Saturday night while getting past a Mississippi team that nearly pulled off a major upset in its most recent road game.

Arkansas (13-3, 2-1 SEC) ended a seven-game win streak with a 74-69 defeat at Tennessee on Tuesday and was denied its first 3-0 start in conference play since 1997-98.

That result also dropped the Razorbacks to 2-3 on the road this season and to 7-28 in coach Mike Anderson's four campaigns.

They're 64-7 at home during Anderson's tenure, have won 44 of 46 there and have taken 17 in a row since a 75-71 loss to Missouri on Jan. 28.

"One of the things we know in conference play is you have to have a short memory, whether you win or lose. Obviously, we had a bump in the road against Tennessee," Anderson said. "We didn't play particularly well, but the good news is, on Wednesday, the sun came up. We get to practice, do it again and get better."

Arkansas blew out Ole Miss 110-80 at home March 5 in the only matchup last season, but this Rebels team took top-ranked Kentucky to overtime in an 89-86 loss Jan. 6.

Ole Miss (10-6, 1-2) split its two subsequent home games, beating South Carolina 65-49 last Saturday and falling 75-71 to LSU on Wednesday. The Rebels had one of their worst shooting performances of the season (34.6 percent) against the Tigers, and leading scorer Stefan Moody missed 13 of 18 attempts.

"The reality is we have 16 more. If you don't come with the right approach on Saturday, you're going to come back 1-3," coach Andy Kennedy said. "We have to come with fire and an aggression like we've seen in the first two games."

Moody, a junior transfer from Florida Atlantic who's averaging 14.8 points, still finished with 14. M.J. Rhett, a senior transfer from Tennessee State, had a season-high 15 points and seven rebounds.

"(Moody) is a guy that like Marshall Henderson can put the ball in the hole. He's really fast with the basketball. He can put up some numbers for them and has tremendous range," Anderson said. "I think the Rhett kid is really big for them, and they're really athletic. ... They're going to come to play. It's going to be a whale of a game."

Moody had 25 points at Kentucky and senior guard Jarvis Summers scored 23. Summers averaged 19.4 in a five-game stretch before finishing with 13 on 6-of-17 shooting Wednesday.

Arkansas' Anthlon Bell had 23 points and made a career-high seven 3-pointers in last season's win over Ole Miss, which snapped a six-game skid in the series. The Razorbacks had also dropped their previous four home games against the Rebels.

Bobby Portis contributed four points in that victory but is averaging 20.1 and shooting 61.0 percent in his last 10 games. The SEC's leader with 18.0 points per game scored a combined 53 in the first two league contests before having 17 on Tuesday.

Ole Miss has lost seven straight and 13 of 16 on the road in SEC play.