Hardwood Rebels Try for Clean Sweep of Florida Thursday

The Ole Miss Rebels return to the court on Thursday night as they head into the O’Connell Center on the University of Florida campus where the Rebels will put a five game winning streak on the line. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. on ESPN.

Photo courtesy Joshua McCoy, Ole Miss Athletics
Photo courtesy Joshua McCoy, Ole Miss Athletics

Ole Miss is coming off of a huge seven-point win over Auburn on the Plains Saturday evening, which moved coach Andy Kennedy’s squad to 16-7 on the season and 6-3 in Southeastern Conference play.

Junior Stefan Moody led the Rebels with 15 points in the game. He still leads the SEC in free-throw percentage at 90.7 and ranks eighth in the nation.

Florida is coming off of a hard fought game with the No. 1 Kentucky Wildcats Saturday at home. The Gators dropped the game 68-61, putting their record at 5-5 in the SEC and 12-11 overall. Junior Michael Fraizer leads the team in scoring with 13.2 points a game. On the year, he has drained 55 3-pointers.

As a team, Florida is next to last in the conference in 3-point field goal percentage.

Back on Jan. 24, Ole Miss defeated Florida 72-71 in front of a packed house in the Tad Smith Coliseum. Even with the win, the Gators still own the series record at 62-44 and in Gainesville, Ole Miss has only won 11 games.

Ole Miss will return home Saturday to face the Arkansas Razorbacks on Valentine’s Day with an 8 p.m. tipoff.

Adam Brown is HottyToddy.com sports editor and can be reached at adam.brown@hottytoddy.com.