Rebels Get Back On Track With 86-81 Victory Over Montana

Courtesy of Joshua McCoy / Ole Miss Athletics

Coming off their first loss of the season, the Rebels were able to get back on track with an 86-81 victory over the Montana Grizzles on Thanksgiving day.

A solid first half saw the Rebels leading 41-29 at the half. The Rebels managed to build an 18 point lead midway through the second half but saw their lead cut to just 5 with a 1:30 remaining. The Rebels were able to hold on for their 5th win of the season and sent the Grizzles home with their 5th loss of the season.

Leading scorer Deandre Burnett came up just shy of his season average, and finished with 21, including five clutch free throws to help seal the victory. Next up for the Rebels was Cullen Neal who scored 19 points thanks for hitting 5 of his 8 3 points attempts. Sebastian Siaz finished with another double-double with 17 points and 13 rebounds. Coming off the bench to help guide the Rebels to a victory was Terence Davis, who scored 18 points in 24 minutes. With those four scoring 75 of the Rebels 86 points, the next highest scorer was Marcanvis Hymon with just 5 points.

The Rebels shot 45%, better than their 44% average on the young season. The Rebels were able to finish with 14 turnovers, slightly under their average of 16 per game. Just six games in Andy Kennedy understands this team has some work to do if they want to make it back to the NCAA Tournament.

“We’ve now played 20 percent of our season, approximately. Defensively, there’s a recurring theme. We are giving up 12 made 3-pointers a game at 45 percent. That went down a little bit tonight to 36 percent, but we still gave up 12 3s. We’re making a lot of mistakes,” Kennedy said after the win “We have to have more personal accountability as it pertains to preparing for games. The coaches know it, and we try to transfer it to the players. We have to do a better job. Some of it could be a lot of new faces in a lot of new roles. I’m pleased with us offensively. We were scoring consistently. Turnovers continue to come down. If you eliminate some of the foolish ones, we’re decent in that area. We have to continue to work.”

The Rebels take on the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders on November 30th at the Pavilion.

Steven Gagliano is a writer for HottyToddy.com. He can be reached at steven.gagliano@hottytoddy.com.

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