After falling to the Virginia Tech Hokies 80-75 on the road, The Ole Miss basketball team returns home to the Pavilion tonight to take on Murray State. The Rebels are 6-3 and are running out of time to fix their early season woes as a matchup against Kentucky looms at the end of December. A win against the Hokies would’ve gone a long way when March rolls around, and out of conference wins are taken into account.
The Rebels have three games left before SEC play begins, and with matchups with Murray State, Bradley and South Alabama, the Rebels have an opportunity to win all three. It all begins against Murray State tonight at 7 p.m, as the Rebels look to get back in the win column against the Racers. The Rebels didn’t play as poorly as they did against MTSU, but they didn’t play a winning brand of basketball. Sebastian Siaz led the Rebels with 21 points, and Terrence Davis made the most of his minutes by adding 18 points and 12 rebounds. Outside of Siaz and Davis, the Rebels had trouble finding production. Leading scorer Deandre Burnett finished with just 7 points, and freshman Breein Tyree didn’t score a point as a starter. Cullen Neal hit a 3 that brought the Rebels within one of the Hokies but ended up with 12 points for the game.
If the Rebels want to take care of business tonight, they must take care of the ball and play with an unselfish mindset. A pair of stats that they must improve on from the VT loss are the 11 assists and 16 turnovers. Taking care of the basketball and creating opportunities for teammates must be the focus as the team shifts its gears to SEC play. Another alarming stat from Sunday’s loss is the Rebels’ 29.6% shooting percentage from beyond the arc. Hitting just 8 if their 27 attempts, the dependence on the 3 got the Rebels into a hole they couldn’t shoot out of. A more balanced approach will serve Andy Kennedy’s team tonight against the Racers.
Murray State has shown the ability to put points on the board albeit against the Bethel Wildcats, but the Racers scored 103 points in a win. Led by guard Johnathon Stark with 20.6 PPG, the Racers are 5-5 on the young season. Head coach, Matt McMahon is in his 2nd season with the Racers.
Tip-off in the Pavilion is at 7 p.m, and the game can be seen on WatchESPN.com. The radio call can be heard on the Ole Miss Radio Network and OleMissSports.com.
Steven Gagliano is a writer for HottyToddy.com. He can be reached at steven.gagliano@hottytoddy.com.
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