OXFORD — The response, Ole Miss basketball coach Chris Beard said, was player-led.

The Rebels didn't just play poorly last week when they lost road games to LSU and Auburn. They played in a fashion that contradicted the way Beard had built his reputation as one of the best coaches in college basketball. His teams have, until this season, won with defense.

Ole Miss allowed 89 points to LSU and 82 to Auburn, who produced the two most efficient offensive performances against the Rebels this season. Rebounding was a problem. The effort level did not reach the required standard.

"We had came together as a group, just trying to figure out what we're doing wrong," Ole Miss guard Jaylen Murray said. "Whether it's playing hard, we're not defending. We're not rebounding. That just translated over to the coaches giving us their point of view on what they're seeing. We just put it all together and put together a couple good practices."

And those practices, in turn, produced the best defensive performance of the Rebels' season.

Ole Miss (16-3, 3-3 SEC) did not just beat Arkansas. It smothered the Razorbacks (10-9, 1-5) the way one of Beard's strong Texas or Texas Tech teams might have.

Arkansas, held below 70 points in four of its prior five SEC games, shot 33.3% from the field. It made just five 3-pointers.

What many expected to be an Ole Miss team with an elite interior defense finally looked like it. With two 7-footers in Jamarion Sharp and Moussa Cisse prowling the lane, Arkansas converted on just six of its 15 layup attempts and saw six of its shots blocked.

Ole Miss won on the glass, too. It snagged 16 offensive rebounds to just nine for the Razorbacks — quite the feat for Ole Miss, which entered the night as one of the worst rebounding teams in the SEC.

Those components helped the Rebels put together a performance that offered just about everything Beard had been asking for. It was uncompromising. It was determined. It was cerebral.

"It started with a willingness and desire to defend," Beard said. " . . . We walked into the facility two days ago for practice and several of the players were meeting themselves talking about defense. So, as a coach, that's not only good to see, that's the only way to win. There's no other way."

The outcome of Beard's first season on the job hinges upon whether his team can apply that desire consistently.

The Rebels are, by most estimations, a bubble team. With a NET rating of 70 going into Wednesday, their metrics compare poorly with many of their peers on the fringes of the tournament discussion.

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To reach their desired destination, they must defend effectively against good teams, not just a sputtering Arkansas squad missing its leading scorer in Tramon Mark.

Beard believes they can.

"I think this team has the talent and the character to win every game on the schedule," he said. "I don't think there's anybody in college basketball that we can't play with and be in a 40-minute game. Our margin for error might be smaller than some. but I believe in these players. We're a work in progress."

David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.

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This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Ole Miss basketball finally looked like Chris Beard team vs. Arkansas