Ole Miss Basketball: No.20 Rebels Hoops Suffer Ugly SEC Loss At Alabama
Coach Kermit Davis and No.20 Ole Miss basketball were back in action Tuesday night as they faced Alabama on the road in Tuscaloosa.
No.20 Ole Miss basketball (14-4, 4-2) entered Tuscaloosa to face Alabama (12-6, 3-3) in search of the Rebels fifth SEC win. The Rebels who were coming off a 84-67 win over Arkansas couldn’t find their game against the Crimson Tide who entered the matchup coming off a 71-68 loss to the now No.1 Tennessee Volunteers.
In what was obviously the Rebels worst first half performance of the 2018-2019 Ole Miss basketball season the Crimson Tide took a huge 42-26 lead into the locker room at the break. The second half was more of the same from both teams as the Tide outscored the Rebels 32-27 to secure the 74-53 win over Ole Miss.
While some Ole Miss basketball fans are noticeably upset by the ‘home cooking’ officiating from the SEC there was an extreme lack of focus by the Rebels from the start of the game and it didn’t get better as the game progressed. Coach Kermit Davis attempted to insert some new bodies to change the Tide’s momentum but no lineup seemed to work Tuesday night. Lets look at the game by the numbers.
By The Numbers
Ole Miss Rebels
As with most losses the team numbers don’t look very good. The Rebels did manage to out-shoot the Tide from the field going for .400 while the Tide shot just .385. This was the only bright spot in the 21 point loss. From beyond the arc the Rebels shot .300 while Bama shot .318 from 3-point range. From the free throw line the Rebels shot just .500 while the Tide shot .773 from the charity stripe.
The Tide out-rebounded the Rebels 44-32 while forcing 16 Rebels turnovers in the game. The Rebels forced just 9 Crimson Tide turnovers. The Tide had 9 steals in the game while Ole Miss tallied just 1 steal throughout the matchup. The Rebel performance Tuesday night was terrible at best and the Rebels simply looked out of sync the entire game against the Tide.
Individual Rebels Numbers
In what was the most non-productive game offensively for the Rebels this season there was just one Rebels player who scored in double-digits. Senior Terence Davis led all Rebels with 10 points on the night to go with 3 boards before fouling out early in the second half.
Junior Breein Tyree added 9 points in the game while down 4 boards. Tyree also added 2 assists and 1 blocked shot against the Tide. Senior Bruce Stevens and freshman Luis Rodriguez added 7 points each. Stevens had 6 boards while Rodriguez had 1 rebound and 1 assist.
Observations
It was obvious from even before the game began the Tide was coming into the game with a huge chip on their shoulder and adamant about defending their home court against the Rebels. Whether this attributed directly to the Rebels ability to respond may be in question but the Rebels played out of sync the entire game.
The Rebels failed to make good shots and with 16 turnovers and the Tides relentless attitude and effort on both ends of the court Ole Miss couldn’t catch back up in the game. As we stated after the LSU loss there is a lot of work left to do for coach Kermit Davis and this team to avoid more games like Tuesday night.
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The week doesn’t get any easier for Coach Kermit Davis and No.20 Ole Miss basketball try to bounce back. This Saturday the Rebels host No.24 Iowa State in Oxford in the SEC/Big12 Challenge. Tipoff from The Pavilion is set for 11am CT and the game will be televised via ESPN. Please be sure to check back here for the OHT Ole Miss/Iowa State preview. Remember you can always visit and like the OHT Facebook page and follow us on Twitter for the latest Ole Miss Rebels news and updates. Hotty Toddy!