Basketball
Ole Miss Looks to Hand Auburn Its First SEC Loss on Tuesday
Deandre Burnett is averaging 19.5 points in the last two conference wins. Photo by Joshua McCoy/Ole Miss Athletics
The Ole Miss Rebels men’s basketball team travels over to the Plains of Auburn to tangle with the Tigers on Tuesday. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. on ESPNU.
Ole Miss (9-6, 2-1 SEC) is coming off of a 64-58 win over their in-state rival Mississippi State. Senior Deandre Burnett led the Rebels with 19 points in that contest. He is averaging 19.5 points per game in the Rebels’ past two conference victories.
Coach Andy Kennedy’s guards are accounting for 72.1 percent of the Rebels’ scoring this season.
Auburn enters Tuesday’s matchup with a 14-1 record and has won 12 straight games. The Tigers took down Tennessee and Arkansas to begin SEC play last week. Auburn leads the SEC in multiple categories, including scoring margin (+14.3), blocks per game (6.4) and free throw percentage (.778). The Tigers rank in the Top 25 nationally in all three categories, their highest being seventh in blocks per game.
Individually, Anfernee McLemore ranks ninth in the country as the SEC’s leader in blocks (3.2 per game).
Auburn averages 87.3 ppg to rank 12th nationally. They’re led by Mustapha Heron (15.9 ppg) and Bryce Brown (15.7 ppg). Bruce Pearl is in his fourth season guiding the Auburn program. He is in his 23rd season as a head coach, with previous stops at Southern Indiana (1992-2001), Milwaukee (2001-05) and Tennessee (2005-11) before arriving at Auburn in 2014.
The Tigers lead the all-time series 75-58, but the Rebels have won 10 straight over the Tigers and 13 of the last 15. Ole Miss’ current 10-game winning streak over Auburn is the longest in school history against an SEC foe, bettering a pair of eight-game streaks against LSU and Mississippi State. During the winning streak, five of the Rebels’ victories occurred in Oxford, four in Auburn and one at the SEC Tournament (2012).
Adam Brown is the sports editor of HottyToddy.com. He can be reached at adam.brown@hottytoddy.com.
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| Sat, Aug 31 |  | vs Furman | W, 76-0 |
| Sat, Sep 7 |  | vs Middle Tennessee | W, 52-3 |
| Sat, Sep 14 |  | @ Wake Forest | W, 40-6 |
| Sat, Sep 21 |  | vs Georgia Southern | W, 52-13 |
| Sat, Sep 28 |  | vs Kentucky | L, 20-17 |
| Sat, Oct 5 |  | @ South Carolina | W, 27-3 |
| Sat, Oct 12 |  | vs LSU | L, 29-26 (2 OT) |
| Sat, Oct 26 |  | vs Oklahoma | W, 26-14 |
| Sat, Nov 2 |  | @ Arkansas | W, 63-35 |
| Sat, Nov 16 |  | vs Georgia | W, 28-10 |
| Sat, Nov 23 |  | @ Florida | L, 24-17 |
| Sat, Nov 30 |  | vs Mississippi State | W, 26-14 |
| Thu, Jan 2 |  | vs Duke (Gator Bowl) | 6:30 PM • ESPN |