Ole Miss Falls at Home to LSU

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

Ole Miss fell at home to the LSU Tigers 75-61 on Saturday.

Ole Miss (6-4, 1-2 SEC) found themselves in trouble early in the contest as LSU came out hot from the opening tip.

“From start to finish, they completely dominated us,” head coach Kermit Davis said. “Our guys competed in the last four minutes to make it respectful. Hats off to those guys, they beat us in every area.”

LSU’s defense forced the Rebels to turn the ball over 20 times and scored 29 points. The Ole Miss offense was held to only 11 assists. 

“[LSU] was not going to let us play a conventional game,” Davis said. “I take full responsibility, our guards couldn’t make really any plays.

Ole Miss was led on the floor by Austin Crowley with a team-high 10 points. Luis Rodriguez added nine points, while Jarkel Joiner contributed nine points of his own. Freshman guard Matthew Murrell scored eight points in 25 minutes of action.

“We have been giving [Matt] opportunities to start,” Davis said. “We love Matt’s potential. We all know he plays better than he’s playing. I thought he’s a little bit better in the second half.”

The one-three-one defense ran by LSU made it hard for the Rebels to score. Ole Miss shot a measly 35% from the floor.

“It is what we’ve been doing for about 17 years,” Davis said. “A lot of teams have copied and run what we run. A lot of teams across the country are starting to run it. [LSU] ran it better than we did.”

The Tigers were led by Trendon Watford with 21 points. His teammates Javonte Smart and Darius Days each contributed 17 and 15 points respectively.

Ole Miss will head to Florida to take the court against the Gators. Tipoff against former Ole Miss great Mike White’s club is on Tuesday at 6 p.m. on SEC Network.