No. 23 Ole Miss has plenty of capable scorers.
The Rebels (7-1) are using their pre-Southeastern Conference schedule to figure out their best lineup and rotation before they begin conference play. And they’ll have another chance to experiment on Saturday when they host Lindenwood in Oxford, Miss.
Ole Miss’ balance was on display when five players scored in double figures during an 86-63 victory at Louisville in the SEC/ACC Challenge on Tuesday night.
“We feel like we can all get double figures every night,” said guard Dre Davis, who had a season-high and team-high 20 points, “so we just focus on moving the basketball and finding the right guy every possession and taking a good shot.”
Davis shot 9-of-12 from the floor. Ole Miss coach Chris Beard said Davis’ competitiveness was most attractive of the many traits he saw in the transfer from Seton Hall.
“He’s a hard-playing dude,” Beard said. “He cares about his craft. He’s very competitive. It starts with intangibles with Dre and he’s a really good basketball player. He can play at all three levels on offense and he can guard different positions on defense.”
The Rebels shot a season-best 56.7 percent from the floor, including 63.3 percent in the second half. They made 40 percent of their 3-pointers.
Sean Pedulla scored 16 points and added a season-high seven assists. Davon Barnes scored 11, and Matthew Murrell and Jaylen Murray added 10 apiece.
“He’s an aggressive scorer but we need him to be a point guard as well,” Beard said of Pedulla, a transfer from Virginia Tech. “With him and (Murray) we feel like we have two of the better guards in the country. Their ability to play together, take care of the ball and continue to improve on the defensive end will be a big signal in our fate this season.”
Ole Miss, which has four scorers averaging in double figures, bounced back from its first loss of the season, an 80-78 defeat against then-No. 13 Purdue in the Rady Children’s Invitational final on Nov. 29 in San Diego.
The game against Lindenwood is the first of five remaining nonconference games the Rebels have before beginning SEC play on Jan. 4 against visiting Georgia.
The Lions (3-5), of the Ohio Valley Conference, also had five double-figure scorers in their most recent game — a 102-45 victory against visiting East-West University of the USCAA Wednesday night in St. Charles, Mo. That win, like that of Ole Miss, was a bounce-back after consecutive road losses against Valparaiso and Missouri.
“I think it is good to get a win after a really tough stretch of our schedule,” head coach Kyle Gerdeman said. “You need those games like (this one) that if you play the right way you should feel really good about yourself individually and as a team and leave with a lot of confidence, and we did that.”
Anias Futrell led the Lions with 15 points, freshman Clayton Jackson scored 14 in his first start, Jalen Bouknight scored 13, Colin Ruffin had 12 points and Jaylon McDaniel added 11. Eleven Lindenwood players scored in the victory.
–Field Level Media
