Hogs pinpoint winning way

BOB HOLT
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas may have turned a corner Wednesday night in Walton Arena. Ole Miss just kept turning it over.
The Razorbacks finally got a quality victory, beating the Rebels 71-64 before 17,923 fans in the SEC opener for both teams.
Arkansas (9-5, 1-0) ended a six-game winning streak by Ole Miss (12-2, 0-1), whose only other loss was on the road to No. 20 Oklahoma.
Ole Miss had a season-high 26 turnovers, which resulted in 34 points for the Razorbacks.
Of Arkansas' five losses, four had been by six or fewer points to Wake Forest, Iowa State, Providence and Memphis, prompting Razorbacks Coach Nolan Richardson to keep preaching to his team that they have been close to turning the corner.
It looked like the Razorbacks might lose another close one against Ole Miss when the Rebels led 59-55, but Arkansas rallied in the final six minutes.
"Maybe we did turn the corner a little bit tonight," said sophomore guard Jason Gilbert, who scored 12 points off the bench for Arkansas. "We've been needing to beat somebody good and win a close game like this.
"I think being down and coming back, hopefully it will get a winning attitude about us and we'll know that going down the stretch, we're supposed to win.
"I don't know if we've been feeling that way in the past, but hopefully that's how we'll feel from now on. We should always expect to win."
Gilbert hit two free throws to give Arkansas a 61-59 lead for good with 4:05 left.
Then Joe Johnson, the Razorbacks' 6-8 freshman guard from Little Rock Central who was playing his fourth game since gaining his eligibility, took over.
Arkansas spread the floor and put the ball in Johnson's hands, and he scored six consecutive points -- including a drive as the 35-second shot clock ran out, a 12-foot jumper and two free throws -- to give Arkansas a 67-60 lead that was too much for Ole Miss to overcome in the final minute.
"They put the team on Joe's back and he carried them to victory," said Ole Miss guard Jason Flanigan, a junior from Little Rock Parkview.
Johnson finished with career-highs of 17 points and 9 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals in 31 minutes.
"There are heroes in every game and we had several tonight, but the big hero was Joe Johnson," Richardson said. "When you have a player like that, you have a chance to win some games.
"You have a go-to person and you put the ball in his hands and say, 'Let's see where we go from here.' That was the big difference."
It was a difference missing for the Razorbacks before Johnson joined the team.
"That's what we've been needing, somebody to come in and hit big shots for us down the stretch," Gilbert said. "Joe did that for us tonight. He's been a big addition for us."
Johnson hit 6 of 9 shots after going 4 of 15 in the Razorbacks' 76-71 loss at Memphis on Monday night.
"I thought I let the game come to me more tonight," Johnson said. "Against Memphis, I rushed things."
Before Johnson's late heroics, sophomore guards Teddy Gipson and T.J. Cleveland teamed up on a big play to get Arkansas in the game.
Ole Miss had the ball with a chance to push its lead to six points, but Gipson made a steal -- knocking the ball through the legs of Rebels forward Darrian Brown to get it to Cleveland -- and Cleveland scored on a drive, was fouled by Jason Harrison and hit the free throw to finish the three-point play and pull the Razorbacks within 59-58 with 5:34 left.
"Teddy and I were talking about who we had to spark it up on defense, and that's what we did," Cleveland said. "We knew we had to make a big play at the point of the game."
Ole Miss helped fuel Arkansas' comeback by hitting 4 of 12 free throws in the final 7:10.
Junior forward Rahim Lockhart, who led the Rebels with 14 points and 10 rebounds, was 0 of 4 from the line in the stretch and hit just 4 of 10 free throws for the game.
"I have to step to the plate and take that challenge," Lockhart said of missing so many free throws. "That isn't going to happen too many more times."
Flanigan and senior forward Marcus Hicks added 11 points for the Rebels, but also combined for 12 turnovers, including seven by Hicks.
"We can't win in the SEC with 26 turnovers," Flanigan said.
Cleveland had 9 points, 3 assists and 3 steals and Gipson had 10 points and 2 steals in 17 minutes off the bench. Gipson had averaged 3.6 points in his previous six games.
"Teddy has been struggling," Richardson said. "But tonight he really did some things to help our team win."
Ole Miss didn't have a basket the last 7:40 after Richard Kirklin, a freshman forward from Pine Bluff, scored on a rebound for a 58-55 lead, and the Rebels shot 22 percent from the field (6 of 27) in the second half.
"We didn't fight like we should have," Flanigan said.
Ole Miss point guard Jason Harrison, a sophomore from Little Rock Parkview, had 4 points and 4 rebounds, but also suffered 5 turnovers and shot 0 of 5 from the field after averaging 18 points in two games against the Razorbacks last season when the Rebels beat Arkansas twice.
"We knew they had swept us last year," Cleveland said. "That was definitely on our minds. We knew we had to try and do something about that.
"Hopefully, the way we came back against Ole Miss, which has a good team, shows that we're starting to mature.
"We've still got a long ways to go, but it's a new season and we're 1-0 in the SEC."

This article was published on Thursday, January 6, 2000

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