Ole Miss Looks for Season Sweep Against MSU in Starkvegas

Photo courtesy Joshua McCoy, Ole Miss Athletics

The Ole Miss basketball team returns to the court Thursday night as they travel down to Starkville to take on in-state rival Mississippi State. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. on ESPN 2.

Ole Miss (17-8, 8-4 SEC) had their six-game conference winning streak snapped Saturday with a gutwrenching 71-70 loss to Arkansas in the Tad Pad. Both teams fought hard for the full 40 minutes of the game, but the Razorbacks pulled out the last-minute shot for the win. The lose gave the Rebels its fourth SEC loss of the year, and now Ole Miss stands alone at No. 3 in the conference standings.

Photo courtesy Joshua McCoy, Ole Miss Athletics

Against Arkansas, senior M.J. Rhett scored a career-high 16 points, tied a career-best with nine boards and blocked two shots in the loss.

As a team, Ole Miss ranks second in the nation in free throw percentage, hitting 78.9 precent of its attempts, while junior Stefan Moody leads the league shooting 91.1 precent from the charity stripe.

Mississippi State (12-13, 5-7 SEC) welcomes Ole Miss in to Humphrey Coliseum after they split a pair games last week against Alabama in a 55-51 loss and a 77-74 win at Missouri. The Bulldogs are lead by junior Craig Sword, who has 12.8 points per game. He is the only Bulldog averaging double figures in league play.

This will be the 252nd time the Magnolia State schools have faced one another on the court, and Mississippi State leads the all time series over the Rebels 141-110, with the Rebels winning the last three meetings between the two schools.

Ole Miss looks to sweep the season series with State on Thursday with a win after a 79-73 victory in Oxford back in January.

Fans can watch the game on ESPN 2 or listen to all the action on the Ole Miss radio network.

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