Dre Davis scored 18 points against his former team to lead No. 23 Ole Miss to an 86-63 victory over the host Louisville Cardinals in an SEC/ACC Challenge matchup on Tuesday.
The Rebels (7-1) led nearly from wire to wire, shooting 56.7 percent. They took advantage of the shorthanded Cardinals (5-3) and dominated inside, scoring 48 points in the paint.
Davis, a fifth-year senior who played his first two seasons at Louisville, made 8 of 11 shots to match his season high in points. He led the team despite sitting out eight minutes of the first half with three fouls.
Sean Pedulla added 16 points and a season-high seven assists for Ole Miss. Davon Barnes pitched in 11 points, while Matthew Murrell and Jaylen Murray finished with 10 apiece.
Chucky Hepburn led Louisville with 19 points. J’Vonne Hadley added 12 points and nine rebounds. Louisville shot just 33.3 percent (19 of 57) and made a mere 5 of 30 3-pointers for a season-low 16.7 percent.
While Ole Miss shot well, the Cardinals started poorly by missing 16 of their first 20 attempts, including their first 11 3-point tries. The hosts’ struggles allowed the Rebels to build a 27-15 lead with 6:40 remaining in the first half.
Louisville climbed back, getting within nine points before halftime. Reyne Smith’s 3-pointer two minutes into the second half cut the Ole Miss lead to 42-37.
However, the Rebels responded with a 14-3 run over a 2:23 stretch to pull away for good. Pedulla’s 3-pointer started the spurt, and it also kicked off a six-minute stretch in which Ole Miss connected on 10 of 11 shots to extend the lead to 65-45 with less than 12 minutes remaining.
The Rebels continued to build on the lead the rest of the way.
The loss capped a dismal two-day stretch for Louisville. On Monday, the team announced that Kasean Pryor, who was the team’s third-leading scorer at 12 points per game, will miss the rest of the season due to a torn ACL.
Earlier on Tuesday, Koren Johnson, who played in the team’s first two games before suffering a shoulder injury, reported on social media site X that he will redshirt this season and get surgery on his shoulder.
–Field Level Media
