HOG RB KNILE DAVIS

FAYETTEVILLE - Lightening struck here Saturday. Arkansas defeated Ole Miss 38-24 in a game delayed twice by lightning, and sophomore Knile Davis lit up the Rebels for 176 yards and three touchdowns, both career highs.

The Razorbacks improve to 5-2 (2-2, SEC), and the Rebels drop to 3-4 (1-3, SEC). Arkansas hosts Vanderbilt next week in a homecoming game set for 6 p.m. on FSN.

Head coach Bobby Petrino was impressed with his Hogs after the win. "It took five hours, but we got the win," Petrino said. "I'm proud of our football team. They played extremely hard."

Davis' rushing was important for the Razorbacks late. The Missouri City, Texas, native broke a career-long 71-yard run to the end zone and also scored from 22 yards out in the final quarter. Davis opened the scoring with a two-yard scamper at the 8:08 mark of the first quarter.

"I was proud of how we finished running the ball," Petrino said. "Knile did a great job running the football, but our offensive line did a great job blocking for him."

UA's four touchdown drives took 1:42, 1:02, 28 seconds and 1:49 off the clock, respectively, marking the 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th times this season the Razorbacks recorded a TD drive of less than two minutes. The 28-second drive is the fastest for the Razorbacks so far this season. Arkansas has 52 TD drives of two minutes or less under Coach Petrino.

Arkansas totaled 464 offensive yards, including a season-high 197 on the ground. Razorback quarterbacks Ryan Mallett and Tyler Wilson combined to throw for 267 yards and one touchdown. Greg Childs led UA in catches with four grabs for 45 yards and a touchdown.

The Razorbacks took a 21-3 advantage over the Rebels into halftime, with one of the most explosive plays of the opening half coming from wide receiver Joe Adams. With the scoreboard reading 14-0 in favor of UA, Adams returned a UM punt 97 yards into the end zone for a TD. Adams broke a tackle and won a foot race with several chasing Ole Miss players to secure Arkansas' all-time longest punt return. The previous best was Ken Hatfield's 95-yard return vs. Tulsa in 1963.

Earlier, Mallett and Childs were in sync, with the UA signal caller lofting a pass into the end zone for Childs to make a diving grab from 23 yards out.

Late in the second quarter, the Razorbacks kept the Rebels from reaching the end zone after UM started the drive at Arkansas' 2-yard line. UA surrendered only a 22-yard field goal to Rebel kicker Bryson Rose after holding UM to minus-one total yards on the drive.

The Razorback offense added the first points of the second half when Zach Hocker connected on a 46-yard field goal, setting the score at 24-10 with 11:16 remaining in the third quarter.

After Ole Miss quarterback Jeremiah Masoli found Ja-Mes Logan for an 18-yard TD pass in the third, the UA-UM game was halted by lightning for the first time. After a 58-minute delay, play continued into the fourth quarter before lightning stopped play again for 31 minutes.

Rebel receiver Markeith Summers exchanged fourth-quarter scores with UA's Davis, catching two scoring throws from Masoli at the 11:39 and 9:04 marks. The latter TD catch closed Arkansas' lead to 31-24.

The 12th-largest crowd in Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium history, 73,619, was on hand for the elongated game. Combined with the stadium-record crowd of 76,808 that attended the Razorbacks' last home game against Alabama, the 150,427 fan total is an Arkansas record for back-to-back home games.

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