Ole Miss carries an 11-1 record into its preconference finale at Memphis on Saturday.
No. 16 Rebels have won five games in a row since losing by two points to No. 13 Purdue late last month, their only scar thus far.
Ole Miss wasn’t at its best in its most recent outing, an 80-62 win against Queens last Saturday, but that result showed the flexibility the Rebels have developed in the build-up to Southeastern Conference play.
Three-point shooting has been a key part of the team’s success, but the Rebels had a poor performance against Queens. They ranked sixth in the SEC in both 3-pointers made per game (9.4) and 3-point accuracy (36.3 percent), but against Queens they shot 7 of 27 (25.9 percent).
“How do you win a basketball game on a night when the shots don’t fall?” Ole Miss coach Chris Beard said. “You have to find another category.”
For the Rebels, that phase was an effort to reach a goal. They took 14 more shots than the Royals and scored 8 more goals. The key to that advantage was ball security, as Ole Miss committed just eight turnovers to Queens’ 21. The Rebels recorded 11 steals, matching their average of 10.4 steals per game (tied for eighth in the nation).
“That gave us more shots than our opponents,” Beard said of catching the ball.
When the 3-pointer didn’t fall, Ole Miss started to get the ball inside and finished with a 42-24 advantage in points in the paint.
“That opened things up for us,” said guard Sean Pedulla, who led the Rebels with 25 points and made 9 of 14 field goals.
Ole Miss knows that overcoming certain weaknesses won’t be easy against Memphis (9-3) or when SEC play begins next week.
The Tigers play their final pre-league game before opening American Athletic Conference play next week. They are coming off a 79-66 home loss against Mississippi State on Dec. 21.
The back-to-back games against SEC teams come at the end of a non-conference schedule that also featured Missouri, UConn, Michigan State, Auburn, Clemson and Virginia. The Tigers went 5-2 against powerhouse conference foes.
“We asked for this program,” Memphis coach Penny Hardaway said. “We have to deal with it.”
Hardaway said, as he did after earlier losses to Auburn and Arkansas State, “This one loss won’t define who we are because it almost does the rest of the season.”
But, he said one disappointing thing about the loss to Mississippi State was, “I didn’t feel like we fought as hard as we could have. … We have to continue to grow and learn from every game we play. We lost.”
Memphis ranks 10th in the country in 3-point accuracy (40.5 percent), but the Tigers have made just 26 percent (13 of 50) from long range in their last two games.
As the Tigers try to complete their rotation and get into conference play, Hardaway admitted, “We’re playing a few guys a ton of minutes.”
Eight Memphis players saw double-digit playing time. The team’s top three scorers — PJ Haggerty (22.5 points per game), Tyrese Hunter (15.9 ppg) and Colby Rogers (11.6 ppg) — are averaging 37.0, 35.3 and 31.8 minutes. , respectively.
–Field Level Media
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