Ole Miss carries an 11-1 record into its pre-conference finale at Memphis on Saturday.
The No. 16 Rebels have won five games in a row since a two-point loss to then-No. 13 Purdue late last month, their only blemish to date.
Ole Miss was not at its best in the latest outing, an 80-62 victory against Queens last Saturday, but that outcome did demonstrate the versatility that the Rebels have developed in the buildup toward Southeastern Conference play.
Three-point shooting has been a significant part of the team’s success, but the Rebels had a sub-par performance against Queens. They rank sixth in the SEC in both 3-pointers made per game (9.4) and 3-point shooting 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 where the shots are not going down?” Ole Miss coach Chris Beard said. “You’ve got to find another category.”
For the Rebels, that category was field-goal attempts. They took 14 more shots than the Royals and wound up with eight more field goals. A key to that advantage was ball security, as Ole Miss committed just eight turnovers to Queens’ 21. The Rebels logged 11 steals, consistent with their average of 10.4 steals per game (tied for eighth in the country).
“That gave us more shots than our opponent,” Beard said of the steady ballhandling.
When the 3-pointers weren’t falling, Ole Miss started getting the ball inside and finished with a 42-24 advantage in points in the paint.
“That kind of opened things up for us,” said guard Sean Pedulla, who led the Rebels with 25 points and made 9 of 14 field-goal attempts.
Ole Miss knows overcoming a particular weakness won’t be as easy against Memphis (9-3) or when SEC play begins next week.
The Tigers are playing their final pre-league game before opening American Athletic Conference action 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 comes at the end of a nonconference schedule that also featured Missouri, UConn, Michigan State, Auburn, Clemson and Virginia. The Tigers are 5-2 against power-conference foes.
“We asked for this schedule,” Memphis coach Penny Hardaway said. “We’re going to have to deal with it.”
Hardaway said, as he did after earlier losses to Auburn and Arkansas State, “This one loss isn’t going to define who we are because it’s about the entire season.”
But, he said the one disappointing thing about the defeat against Mississippi State was, “I didn’t feel like we fought as hard as we could have. … We’ve just got to keep growing and learn from every game that we lose.”
Memphis ranks 10th in the country in 3-point shooting accuracy (40.5 percent), but the Tigers have made just 26 percent (13 of 50) from long range in their past two games.
As the Tigers try to finalize their rotation and roles entering conference play, Hardaway acknowledged, “We’re playing a few guys a ton of minutes.”
Eight Memphis players are seeing 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
