The Ole Miss men’s basketball team took on the Florida Gators in their 118th matchup together. Florida came into this game as a part of a fierce SEC standings battle between Missouri, Vanderbilt and Arkansas, each of whom had six conference losses.
A couple of the top teams in the SEC learned that Ole Miss, when firing on all cylinders, can steal games. The Rebels lost by 10 or fewer points to some of the top teams in the SEC, so Florida could not afford to drop this one, especially at home. Luckily for the Gators, their whole team showed up to play.
Aside from Colin Castleton, who injured his wrist, every starter scored double-digit points, along with an efficient 13 points from Kowacie Reeves off the bench.
Florida, as a whole, shot about 59% from beyond the arc and the same percentage overall, which is a phenomenal stat that would win many teams some games. On the other hand, Ole Miss finished the game shooting 25% from three-point land and about 40% from the field.
What is interesting about these stark differences is that Ole Miss shot 14 more shots than Florida did, 63 in total compared to Florida’s 49. The Gators were simply more efficient and made it a point to give up good shots for great shots.
Another significant statistical difference comes from the assist category. Florida dished out 15 assists, which admittedly is not an insane number, but compared to Ole Miss’ six assists, that number looks much better.
Ole Miss won the rebounding war, which has been the case a lot this season. This is also part of the reason the Rebels got up more shots than the Gators.
Leading the Rebels in scoring was junior guard Matthew Murrell with 15 points, followed by Jaemyn Brakefield with 14. The offense looked great when the ball found the open man, but when the ball stuck, things looked rough for head coach Kermit Davis’ team.
Both Florida and Ole Miss gave the ball away a good number of times, each turning the ball over 11 times. However, Ole Miss gave the ball away in bunches, meaning they had multiple back-to-back turnovers, while Florida’s mistakes were more spread out.
These Rebel turnovers led to multiple short runs, and as many people know, basketball is a game of runs, so the Gators used Ole Miss’ misfortune to expand their lead until the final score ended up being 79-64.
This loss stings as the Rebels continue to try to play spoiler to any team in their path, but Ole Miss now has its eyes set on in-state rival Mississippi State. The first matchup in the basketball version of the Egg Bowl resulted in the Bulldogs beating the Rebels 64-54 in Starkville, but Ole Miss would love nothing more than to get its revenge inside the SJB Pavilion.
Mississippi State is one of those upper-tier SEC teams vying for a March Madness bid, so Ole Miss has a chance to drop the Bulldogs down a peg.
The game takes place on Saturday, Feb. 15 at 5:30 p.m. CST and can be viewed on the SEC Network.
