Rebels Tangle With the Tigers on The Plains

By Adam Brown
Sports Editor
adam.brown@hottytoddy.com

Terence Davis cheers on his teammates. Photo by Josh McCoy/Ole Miss Athletics. 

The Ole Miss basketball team travels to the Plains of Auburn on Wednesday night to tangle with Tigers. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. on the SEC Network.

Ole Miss (16-7, 6-4) rolls into the game after defeating Georgia 80-64 on Saturday. Junior Breein Tyree matched a career-high scoring 31 points against the Bulldogs. He averaged 24.0 ppg over the last five games, reaching the 20-point plateau in each game to become the first Rebel to record five straight 20-point games since Stefan Moody (14 in the 2015-16 season).

Senior Terence Davis has averaged 19.2 ppg over the last five games against the Tigers including a 27-point outburst in the last matchup.

Auburn enters tonight’s game with a 16-7 record, including a 5-5 mark in SEC play. The Tigers had their three-game winning streak snapped Saturday in an 83-78 loss at No. 21 LSU. Auburn is led by guards Bryce Brown (16.7 ppg) and Jared Harper (15.6 ppg). Brown is making 3.5 three-pointers per game, ranking second in the SEC and 14th nationally. As a team, Auburn leads the conference from long distance by shooting 37.7 percent and making 11.3 threes per game (fourth nationally).

The Tigers also crack the country’s top 10 in turnover margin (3rd-+5.2), turnovers forced per game (4th-18.5), steals per game (8th-9.2) and blocks per game (8th-5.3). Head Coach Bruce Pearl is in his fifth season guiding the Auburn program. He is in his 24th season with stops at Southern Indiana (1992-2001), Milwaukee (2001-05) and Tennessee (2005-11) before arriving at Auburn in 2014.

Auburn leads the all-time series 77-59, but the Rebels have won 11 and the last 13. Prior to last season’s sweep, the Rebels had a 10-game winning streak in the series. It was 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). The Tigers hold a 51-14 advantage in Auburn, but Ole Miss has won four of the last five meetings on The Plains.

Rebel fans can watch all the action on the SEC Network or listen to the call on the Ole Miss Sports Network.