Ole Miss is using its pre-conference schedule to get ready for the rigors of the SEC season.
The No. 25 Rebels (2-0) had a surprisingly difficult time in their second game, rallying to edge visiting Grambling State 66-64 last Friday.
They will try to continue building toward conference play when they meet South Alabama (1-1) in another nonconference game Tuesday night in Oxford, Miss.
Ole Miss coach Chris Beard acknowledged that his team didn’t play its best last time out, but he pointed out that the Tigers had seven returning starters from last year’s team, which won the SWAC regular-season and tournament titles and won a game in the NCAA Tournament before losing to eventual national runner-up Purdue.
So the close call maybe should not have been all that surprising, and the bottom line was the final score.
“I’m not pleased with the way we played for 40 minutes, but I am pleased that we won the game,” Beard said. “We have lots to learn from. We’ve got to play better, obviously.”
The Rebels struggled with their 3-point shooting, making just 6 of 26, though Beard is unconcerned about that aspect of their game overall.
“We’re going to be a good 3-point shooting team. It’s who we are,” Beard said. “This game the three wasn’t our friend. Some of that was self-inflicted with our shot selection, but there were a lot of threes that we’re going to take all day every day.”
Ole Miss was able to overcome the poor 3-point shooting in part because of a disparity in turnovers. The Rebels scored 26 points off 22 Grambling turnovers and they committed just six turnovers themselves, leading to 11 Grambling points.
Another area that Ole Miss plans to work on before it faces South Alabama is its rebounding. The Tigers outrebounded the Rebels 39-33, leading to an 11-4 advantage in second-chance points.
“(Rebounding) will continue to be a focus,” Beard said. “That’s something we’ve got to get cleaned up.”
In the end Ole Miss was able to overcome a 12-point second-half deficit thanks to a 20-0 run, though the game still went to the wire. Dre Davis led four players in double figures with 13 points; Jaylen Murray paces the Rebels with a 17.0 scoring average thus far.
South Alabama evened its record with a 70-64 road victory against Nicholls State last Friday. It trailed by four points before finishing with a 15-5 run in the final five minutes.
The Jaguars are hoping to build on that victory, because a point of emphasis for seventh-year head coach Richie Riley is for his team to hit its stride earlier than it has in recent seasons.
Last season the Jaguars won six of their last eight Sun Belt Conference regular-season games and finished 16-16 overall. Two years ago, they won 11 of their final 14 games to finish 19-16.
“I do feel like this team is operating at a much higher urgency level than we’ve operated at in a long time,” Riley said. “We want to get off to a better start. The calling card of our team is we get better as the year goes on. We need to play better early.”
Myles Corey has averaged 19.0 points and 9.5 assists through two games.
