OXFORD — Ole Miss senior guard Sean Pedulla scored 15 of his 19 points in the first half Thursday night against Oral Roberts, and senior guard Matthew Murrell moved into 15th place on the Rebels’ all-time scoring list in a 100-68 win over the Golden Eagles at SJB Pavilion.
Ole Miss (5-0) led by as many as 37 in the second half, holding Oral Roberts to just seven made field goals on 23 attempts. The Rebels outscored the Golden Eagles 50-28 in the second. Five Ole Miss players finished in double-figure scoring, and the Rebels forced 21 Oral Roberts turnovers.
“I’d say most of it was effort. A lot of it was just being physical and being the aggressor and kind of taking them out of the stuff that we knew they wanted to do,” Pedulla said. “We kind of got away from that in the first half … but I thought overall in the second half we did a pretty good job.”
The Rebels trailed by four early but used an 18-2 run to take a 19-7 lead just more than six minutes into the game. Oral Roberts (2-4) cut what was a 12-point lead down to three with about six-and-a-half minutes left in the half and eventually tied the game at 29. A 3-pointer from Pedulla gave the Rebels the lead just seconds later, however, and was the start of a run that put them up by 10 at halftime. Pedulla hit three 3-pointers in the game, all coming in the first half.
A basket from Murrell just less than six minutes into the game moved the Memphis native into 15th place on the Rebels’ all-time scoring list, passing Murphy Holloway. Murrell finished with 19 points on 7 of 14 shooting.
A 12-2 run that started with just over 15 minutes left in the second half put Ole Miss up by 20. The Rebels shot 56% from the field in the second and held the Golden Eagles to 30.4%. Oral Roberts shot 52% from the field in the first.
“Nothing from a coaching standpoint (changed defensively). We tried to help the guys. But I give the guys all the credit. We just had a defensive emphasis in the second half,” Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard said. “ … It was kind of the will, the desire, the want to. Like, ‘Hey, we have to play some defense.’”
Ole Miss plays BYU in the Rady Children’s Invitational Thursday at 4:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast on FS1.
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