Rebs Want to Break S.C. Losing Streak

The Colonial Life Arena Has Been A Difficult Place For The Rebels To Find A Way To Win.

By: Adam Brown, Sports Editor HottyToddy.com

adam.brown@hottytoddy.com

Photo by Seph Anderson

The Ole Miss Rebels travel to Columbia, S.C. on Wednesday to face the South Carolina Gamecocks in the Colonial Life Arena.

Ole Miss (19-6, 8-4 SEC) is 8-4 in the conference, which has the team off to their best start  since the 00-01 season.

The Rebels are ranked third in the SEC off the play of junior Marshall Henderson, who leads the SEC in scoring with 19.7 points per game and is ranked third in the nation in three-pointers made, averaging 3.8 per game.  Credit also is due to the play of sophomore point guard Jarvis Summers, who has started heating up the net in the SEC with 11.2 points per game.

In the 84-74 overtime win against Georgia on Saturday, Coach Andy Kennedy tied B.L. Graham for the most wins (144) in Ole Miss history. Kennedy’s record is 144-84 in his seventh season as head coach of the Rebels.

Coach Kennedy talked to the media about moving forward after the win over Georgia.

“I really believe that, as painful as that was going back and forth, this is what we needed. It was as if we had flat lined, and they brought out the paddles and shocked us back to life,” Kennedy said.

South Carolina (12-13, 2-10 SEC) is on a six-game losing streak after dropping their last game to the Alabama Crimson Tide by the score of 68-58.  The Gamecocks last win was on January 26, when they defeated the Arkansas Razorbacks.

South Carolina is led by freshman Michael Carrea, who is scoring on average 10.4 ppg.

This will be the 30^th matchup between the schools, with the Rebels holding a slight one-game advantage in the series at 15-14.  The Rebels have only won one game in Columbia in the last ten games played in the Colonial Life Arena. That  lone win came in 2001.

Rebel fans can catch all the action of the game on CSS with tipoff at 6:00PM.