Ole Miss Men’s Basketball traveled to Biloxi, Miss. to face Southern Miss before heading to Tupelo, Miss. to take on Alabama A&M, notching wins against both teams.
Southern Miss
Ole Miss took on Southern Miss on Saturday, Dec. 13.
The team started slow against the Golden Eagles and never heated up. In the first seven minutes of the game alone they only shot 30% from the field off of 3-10 shooting. The Rebels finished the first half only up 31-29.
One of the highlights of the game was a great steal from Koren Johnson who pushed down the court and passed the ball out from under the basket to Travis Perry who hit a transition 3-pointer. Corey Chest then followed that play up with a dominating block on the next series.
The reemergence of guard AJ Storr for the Rebels was a major storyline in this game. His 66.7% shooting and 21 points was a revitalized number after several games in a row of inefficient shooting. The Southern Miss game was the first time he achieved over 60% shooting and over 20 points since a loss against Iowa almost a month ago.
He also played 36 minutes, a stark contrast to comments made during the press conference after the Miami loss. When a reporter asked Storr about a perceived lack of effort, head coach Beard interrupted Storr and said that there was a fix.
“We can play different players,” Beard said. “And that’s what we did in the second half where we won the second half by seven points. We can play different players, it can get fixed and it will be fixed.”
The Rebels were able to take the lead about halfway through the second half and hang on to thwart a Golden Eagles comeback in the last few minutes. In the final 20 seconds, Southern Miss’ Dylan Brumfield hit two free throws to put the Golden Eagles within three of the Rebels before Kezza Giffa and Illias Kamardine hit two free throws each to seal the game.
The 71-67 win was a far cry from the dominance in the previous two matchups against the Golden Eagles in 2023 and 2024. Ole Miss won both of those games comfortably by a combined score of 166-118.
Alabama A&M
Ole Miss took a quick trip to Tupelo to face Alabama A&M on Wednesday, Dec. 17.
The Rebels started off ambitious with a lob to Malik Dia that barely missed. Dia made up for his mistake by hitting a three on the following possession. Perry and Dia continued raining threes in a battle of sharpshooters as both teams were aggressive from beyond the arc to start the game.
Despite the Rebel onslaught, the Bulldogs were able to keep the game close about halfway through the first half. Ole Miss was only leading 20-17.
Similar to the Southern Miss game, Chest had another great steal, but instead of passing the ball, he slammed it in for a transition dunk-and-one, although he did miss the ensuing free throw.
The Rebels ended the first half up 44-29, mainly due to their scoring streaks of seven and 10 points and Dia’s all-around effectiveness. Dia’s 17 first half points came off of shooting 6-of-11, including his trio of three pointers to start his scoring.
Chest had back-to-back big plays to start the second half with a massive dunk. He followed that up with a dominating block.
Despite his success, Dia was not infallible this game. He only shot 6-of-13 from the line, a far cry from his usual 79.5% free throw percentage this season.
Although they made a few mistakes, overall Ole Miss displayed effort and hustle this game, as many players dove for loose balls, aggressively rebounded and consistently contested shots.
However, while many players contributed to the win, Beard is still unsure what the rotation of players will be.
“No, it’s a work in progress,” Beard said in his postgame press conference. “It’s just hard to play 10 or 11 guys…we got a lot of competition in practice and we haven’t had enough players separate through game production.”
With the 80-66 win, the Rebels improved their season record to 7-4.
What’s Next?
The Rebels have two games on Dec. 21 and Dec. 29 against NC State and Alcorn State before opening SEC play in the beginning of January at Oklahoma.
