beat the pups..
 
If it;s the only SEC game you are going to win up to this point, it's a good one to winThree observations from Ole Miss basketball's 82-72 win over Mississippi StateJake Thompson•1 day



The Ole Miss men’s basketball team bounced back to notch its first SEC win of the season by knocking off Mississippi State on Saturday. Here is what we learned.

Matthew Murrell Coming Into His OwnMany have been waiting for Murrell to have the performance he had against the Bulldogs on Saturday.The sophomore lit up the scoreboard with with a career-high 31 points, missing only one shot (10-11). Murrell was perfect from beyond the three-point line, making all five of his shots and was also 6-6 from the free-throw line.With Jarkel Joiner in a limited role on Saturday — playing only six minutes after missing the Tennessee game — Murrell was the one who stepped up in the senior’s absence.“I got going with a couple layups and then the threes started to fall and it felt like I couldn’t miss,” Murrell said. “The coaches have been on me about being assertive, being aggressive in games. It started in practice and just carried over into the game.”There were signs Murrell was coming into his own this season after scoring 14 and 19 points against Rider and Memphis, respectively. But then most of December was not as productive from a scoring standpoint.Murrell has found the switch with the start of conference play. He scored 17 points against Tennessee on Wednesday following that up with his career night against the Bulldogs.



Offense More Fluid and In ControlThere is still a lot of work needed, but Saturday was another one of those nights that showed when the offense is clicking it is just as dominant as the defense.High-scoring games are not something Ole Miss basketball games are going to entail most of this season, but for the third time this year the Rebels cracked the 80-point threshold.
 Aided by Murrell’s 23 points in the first half, the offense put a 50-burger on the scoreboard at halftime. Those first 20 minutes were less stagnant than the game in Knoxville on Saturday.Ball movement was better and more in control on Saturday, which was helped by Daeshun Ruffin’s game-high eight assists.“We got out in transition (and) a lot of guys made some shots,” said Ole Miss head coach Kermit Davis. “Daeshun really made a lot of people better in the first half. … He creates offense for others. He’s got to learn, keep learning how to be a point guard. But that was great because he played against maybe the first or second point guard in our league tonight.”Murrell was locked down in the second half, being held to a modest eight points. Nysier Brooks, Ruffin and Jaemyn Brakefield provided balanced offense with 11, nine and four points, respectively.”It has been said over and over this season up to this point, but the Rebels offense has to be a collaborative effort to have success. The absence of the team’s leading scorer the past two games has been exhibit A of that.


Defense Continues Doing what it DoesLets face it, there was nothing pretty about Wednesday’s game in Knoxville on either side, but the Rebels defense really made the Volunteers play some ugly basketball.Unfortunately, that was not enough on that day but on Saturday it was more than enough with the help of an offense with a pulse.Mississippi State was held to less than 75 points only three other times this season before Saturday. The Rebels forced 11 Bulldog turnovers and scored 15 points off of them.“We tried to change our defenses up,” Davis said. “We tried to do a few different little things depending on what they ran. We could do it in front of our bench. We couldn’t do it so much away from out bench with the coaches not right there.”

 

Last edited by Rock1Aggie (1/09/2022 11:49 pm)