Ole Miss Basketball: Rebels Hoops Too Much For MTSU

Coach Kermit Davis and Ole Miss basketball were back in action on the road Friday night as they faced MTSU in Nashville for Davis homecoming.

Coach Kermit Davis was in Nashville with Ole Miss basketball (9-2) in a homecoming of sorts against Middle Tennessee State University (3-9). Coach Davis was the former head coach for the Blue Raiders prior to taking the vacant head coach position at Ole Miss just after the 2017-2018 basketball season. The Rebels entered Nashville coming off a 90-70 blowout win over Chattanooga.

The 74-56 win over the Blue Raiders was the sixth consecutive win and was another dominant performance by the Rebels. Behind a fast and potent Rebels offense and a tenacious defense Ole Miss had a 38-26 lead at the break. In the second half it was more of the same from the Rebels and outscored the Blue Raiders 36-30 to pick up the win for coach Kermit Davis.

So far in the 2018-2019 Ole Miss basketball season the Rebels are off to a very hot start. With just one game left before beginning to SEC play coach Kermit Davis and the Rebels have built some serious momentum. While some critics look at the Rebels schedule and question their legitimacy the Rebel have shown they can play together and are getting much better as the season progresses. Lets look at the MTSU win by the numbers.

Rebels Team Numbers

Ole Miss Rebels

As a team from the field the Rebels had their sixth straight game of shooting 50% or better. The Rebels shot .500 against the Blue Raiders while holding MTSU to just .339. The Rebels shot .364 from beyond the arc while the Blue Raiders shot .357 from three-point range. At the free-throw line Ole Miss went for .571 while MTSU shot slightly better at .684 from the charity stripe.

The Rebels looked very good at the board out-rebounding the Blue Raiders 42-30 while sticking close to MTSU in both turnovers and steals which points to a very good defensive game from both teams. Each team had 17 turnovers while Ole Miss led in the steals department 9-8. It was a very close to a good game but the Rebels were unstoppable.

Individual Rebels Numbers

As expected there were some more really good individual numbers for the Rebels. On the night there were three Rebels who scored in double digits against MTSU. Leading all Rebels was junior Breein Tyree who scored 24 points. Tyree also had 2 boards 1 assist and 2 steals in the game.

Senior Bruce Stevens added 12 points to go with his 4 boards, 2 assists and 1 steal. Junior Dominik Olejniczak put up 10 points to go with his 3 rebounds while senior Terence Davis added 8 points on the night. Davis also had a very impressive 7 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals and 1 blocked shot. Freshman Blake Hinson also added 8 points of his own to go with 2 boards.

Observations

There have been a few questions among Rebels faithful about the Rebels ranking which is 145. While It may not look that good in that measure yet the Rebels do have a 9-2 record and do have momentum. With a six-game win streak heading in to the last game of the pre-SEC schedule which begins January 5th once again in Nashville against Vandy (7-2) the Rebels have to be the obvious favorite.

So far this season we have seen a much more aggressive Rebels team than what we have been used to. Ole Miss basketball is now all about speed and big plays on both sides of the ball. As we have been saying this a very exciting Ole Miss basketball program and have some big games just ahead. We should all be anxious to see this Rebels hoops team in SEC play.

Coach Kermit Davis and Ole Miss basketball will be back in action at home in The Pavilion Saturday December 29th as they host Florida Gulf Coast. Tip off is set for 1pm and the game will be televised via SEC Network+. Good luck to the Rebels. Hotty Toddy!