Rebels Drop a Hard-Fought Game to Mizzou

Terrence Davis leads the Rebels in scoring with 20 points against Missouri. Photo by Josh McCoy / Ole Miss Athletics

Ole Miss dropped a hard fought 75-69 game to the Missouri Tigers at home.

The Rebels (11-13, 4-7 SEC) came out strong in the opening minutes, jumping out to an early 11-0 lead. Missouri weathered the storm and answered back. Terrence Davis opened the game 3-4 from the field early in the game.
Missouri outscored Ole Miss 40-20 for the rest of the half. As both teams headed into the locker rooms, the Rebels trailed 40-31.
“How many times does the ball seem to be loose?” Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said. “We are down on 50/50 balls on the year. They double us up on 50/50 balls, and that is awareness. We get the early lead, and we left our feet on shot fakes on nine points for them.”
Ole Miss was led in scoring by Davis who finished the game with 20 points and three rebounds. Two other Rebels also reached the double-figure mark in scoring as Bruce Stevens and Markell Crawford added 15 and 11 points respectively.
In the second half, Ole Miss cut into the deficit early behind the play of Davis and Crawford. Missouri found trouble against the 1-3-1 defensive look.
Missouri turned to a player on the bench in Jontay Porter with a double-double 18 points and 13 boards in the win.
“(Porter) should be in high school, and he goes up against us and obviously in a desperate situation for our team, goes for 18 points in only 23 minutes; he got into foul trouble,” Kennedy said.
Ole Miss shot 40 percent from the field and 80 percent from the free-throw line. Missouri had success from beyond the arc shooting 43 percent and 85 percent from the line in the game.
“We made free throws at a decent clip,” Kennedy said. “We knew rebounding was going to be a problem, and we haven’t seemed to get that solved.”

Adam Brown is the Sports Editor of HottyToddy.com. He can be reached at adam.brown@hottytoddy.com.