Ole Miss Defeats Charleston Southern 93-68

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

Ole Miss men’s basketball rolls past the Charleston Southern Buccaneers with a 93-68 win on Friday night.

“(Charleston Southern) has some downhill players and they will drive you and drive you,” head coach Kermit Davis said.

Ole Miss (2-0, 0-0 SEC) had five different scorers in double figures all led by senior Jarkel Joiner with 24 points. Joiner scored 16 of his 24 points in the second half.

“Jarkel added seven assists and no turnovers,” Davis said.

The other four Rebels who joined Joiner with double figures were Luis Rodriguez (12), Austin Crowley (11), Matthew Murrell (11) and Jameyn Brakefield (10).

“We had five guys in double-figures,” Davis said. “I think you’re going to see a lot of those kinds of numbers from this team throughout the year.”

Brakefield led the team in rebounds.

“Good to see Jaymen get going,” Davis said. “He shoot some good balls tonight in the first half. We need to get him to where he is confident and makes threes. All those shots were good.”

Ole Miss took advantage of the game at the 14:27 mark of the first half on a three-pointer by Crowley and never let Charleston Southern re-take the lead. The Rebels got out to a 15 point margin twice in the first half at the 6:01 mark (29-14) and with 1:35 (35-20) remaining until halftime.

Charleston Southern (1-1) was led on the court by Deonataye Buskey with 17 points. CSU had three other players add double figures in Kalib Clinton with 12 while Tahlik Chavez and Sean Price each added 10 points. Price finished with a double-double with 10 boards.

Ole Miss held the Buccaneers to only 68 points in their season opener CSU put up 118 points against Johnson and Wales on Tuesday night.

“Our half-court defense got set,” Davis said. “(CSU) was not able to get balls in transition and lay them in. We made them run a half-court offense. It’s a big key for that.”

In the first half, Ole Miss had seven turnovers after halftime only had two more in the game.

Ole Miss shot 50.7 percent from the field, 37.9 from beyond the arc and 85.7 from the line.

Ole Miss returns to action on Thursday as they take part in the Shriners Children’s Charleston Classic out in Charleston, South Carolina. The Rebels will take on Marquette at 6 p.m. on either ESPN2 or ESPNU.