OXFORD — Leading by just a point at halftime over Alcorn State, the Ole Miss men’s basketball team outscored the Braves 45-31 in the second half to surge to a 73-58 win in the Rebels’ season opener Monday night at SJB Pavilion.
Junior guard Matthew Murrell scored 14 of his game-high 20 points in the second half, and Ole Miss held Alcorn State to just 11 of 31 shooting from the field in the period. Senior Robert Allen, playing in his first game since sustaining a season-ending knee injury last December, came off the bench and scored all 15 of his points in the second half.
“I’m proud of myself,” Allen said. “A lot of times, I don’t take the moment to say that to myself. So, saying it in front of you guys (media) just means even more. Just going through the things that I went through, more mentally than physically, going through something like this has been just very big for me. So, proud and just thankful. Thank God that I got the second chance, opportunity, to play basketball again.”
Alcorn State hit six of its first seven shots to open the game but went eight minutes without scoring — broken up by a lone free throw — later in the half, allowing the Rebels to take a five-point lead. The Braves went nearly 10 minutes without hitting a field goal.
The Rebels had their offensive struggles in the first half as well, though, which included two points off turnovers and 10 bench points. A late 3-pointer from Murrell helped put Ole Miss up 28-27 at halftime.
After shooting just 31 percent from the field in the first half, the Rebels (1-0) hit on 46 percent of their shots in the game’s final 20 minutes.
“Matt Murrell got off to a slow start. But what good players do is they just find a rhythm, find a way,” Ole Miss head coach Kermit Davis said.
True freshman guard Amaree Abram got the start for Ole Miss in place of sophomore Daeshun Ruffin, who suffered a bone bruise in the Rebels’ exhibition victory, and finished with seven points. Fellow freshman guard T.J. Caldwell scored 10 points.
The Rebels host Florida Atlantic at 6 p.m. Friday.
Angel Baker leads Rebels women to season-opening win
The Ole Miss women’s basketball team used a dominant third quarter to take down Kennesaw State 72-60 on Monday night in the season opener for both teams.
Leading by three at halftime, the Rebels (1-0) opened up the third quarter on a 7-0 run and outscored the Owls (0-1) 23-13 in the period.
“(The message at halftime was) really that we just needed to calm down,” Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said. “First game jitters, we had people in foul trouble. I felt like the whole game was first-game jitters. For the table, the clock froze. For like three minutes, we didn’t know the score, we didn’t know who was in foul trouble. It was really just a mess. So I just talked about how, in the second quarter, we were able to hold them to 13 points, and we want to be able to keep people (to) 12-15 points or less.”
The Rebels trailed by four after the first quarter following a 2 for 11 shooting spell that allowed the Owls to jump in front. Kennesaw State led by as many as seven early in the second quarter.
A 4-of-5 shooting stretch allowed the Rebels to tie the game with just under five minutes left in the second quarter, and a free throw from junior Snudda Collins a little over one minute later put Ole Miss back in front.
Juniors Madison Scott and Collins combined for 14 points in the third. Four Ole Miss players finished in double-figure scoring, led by senior guard Angel Baker’s 18. Scott finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
“Our team’s also going to have to get used to being the hunted. We’re not hunting anymore. We were 23-9 last year. People know that, they’re talking about that, and they want to come after us,” McPhee-McCuin said. “So, we’re going to have to start punching if that’s what we want to do. If we want to hunt, we’re going to have to start punching right from the jump.”
Ole Miss hosts Southeast Missouri State at 6 p.m. Thursday.
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