TROY, Ala. — Ole Miss men’s basketball coach Andy Kennedy, comparing his team’s season opener to its 74-64 victory Monday at Troy, likes what he sees.
Ole Miss shot 50 percent from the field and outrebounded Troy 42-28 to bounce back from a season-opening loss to Charleston Southern.
“I saw improvement in a lot of areas,” Kennedy said. “We rebounded much better and we made some shots, but we’re still a work in progress.”
Senior Jarvis Summers, a preseason All-Southeastern Conference pick, scored 21 points on 8-of-15 shooting. Stefan Moody and Ladarius White added 14 points each.
Summers had eight points on 3-of-13 shooting Friday as Ole Miss (1-1) shot 33 percent against Charleston Southern.
“It’s a long season,” Kennedy said. “But I wanted to see some improvement tonight.”
Wesley Person scored 25 points, the most by a Troy freshman in at least 14 years, to lead the Trojans (1-1).
Kevin Thomas finished with 13 points and 14 rebounds for Troy, which shot 32 percent.
“We’re probably not quite ready to beat a team like Ole Miss, unless we have a special night shooting the ball,” said Troy coach Phil Cunningham, a former assistant coach at Mississippi State. “We had one guy with a special night shooting the ball.”
Moody’s basket with 2 1/2 minutes remaining gave Ole Miss its biggest lead at 70-55. Troy never led.
The Trojans, down 34-23 at halftime, pulled within four early in the second half on a three-point play by John Walton III.
Ole Miss scored on its next four possessions, capped by a basket by Summers, and led 44-32.
After Troy sliced the lead to five with 13 minutes left, the Rebels scored six straight points, including four by Moody.
n Southern Mississippi 68, South Alabama 59: At Hattiesburg, Matt Bingaya, who finished with 14 points, made three straight layups and a jumper with 7 minutes, 12 seconds remaining in the game to give the Golden Eagles their first lead and a come-from-behind victory Monday night.
Chip Armelin had 13 points and Shadell Millinghaus added 11 for Southern Miss (2-0).
“That was a tale of two halves,” Southern Miss coach Doc Sadler said. “We turned the ball over 11 times in the first half, and I honestly didn’t know what team I was watching. But, in the second half, we only turned it over four times, and we played much better. I think it shows what kind of guys we have. They never got down. They just kept plugging away and they were rewarded in the end.”
The Jaguars led until Bingaya went on his run to give Southern Miss a 46-44 advantage. The Golden Eagles made 21 free throws in the last 1:50 to seal the win. They were 23 of 34 from the free-throw line overall. The Jaguars were 8 of 10 from the line.
The Golden Eagles shot 28 percent from the field in the first half but warmed up in the second, making 14 of 26 attempts (53.8 percent).
John Brown led South Alabama (1-1) with 14 points and Barrington Stevens had 12.
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