Photo By Ignacio Murillo | The Daily Mississippian
Ole Miss will look to keep the momentum rolling they built with an overtime win over LSU, as the Rebels head to South Carolina today for the fourth Southeastern Conference game of the season.
South Carolina (7-9, 0-3 SEC) has played the 33rd toughest schedule this season, according to WarrenNolan.com. The Gamecocks have just one bad loss on the season, a home defeat at the hands of South Carolina Upstate, who is in the same conference as Mercer.
Ole Miss (11-5, 2-1 SEC) got huge games out of Sebastian Saiz and Marshall Henderson – in his first SEC game – against LSU. Saiz had a career-high 20 points on 8 of 11 shooting. He was the first Ole Miss forward to hit the 20-point mark this season.
Henderson returned without missing a beat, as he scored 25 and knocked down 6 of 12 three pointers. Jarvis Summers also scored 20 points, as he was a perfect 10 of 10 from the free throw line.
Last season, Ole Miss had one of their worst losses when they traveled to South Carolina. The Rebels fell 63-62, when South Carolina hit a three to win with 25 seconds remaining. Henderson was held to just 11 points on 17 shots, while Summers failed to score and shot just three times in 16 minutes.
South Carolina will be without one of their top scorers, as point guard Tyrone Johnson is out indefinitely with a fracture in his right foot that he suffered in the Gamecocks last game, a loss to Texas A&M. Johnson was one of three Gamecocks averaging over 11 points per game and shooting at least eight times per game.
South Carolina is second to last in the SEC in field goal percentage at 43.5 percent. The team in last place is Ole Miss – 43.2 percent. However, Ole Miss leads the conference in three-point percentage, 38.5 percent, while South Carolina is second at 36.4 percent. But, Ole Miss attempts the most threes per game, 21.8, while South Carolina shoots the second fewest 13.6.
This results in Ole Miss having the ninth best effective field goal percentage (50.1 percent) and South Carolina being last in the SEC (48.1).
Johnson’s absence will hurt the Gamecocks’ shooting. He is shooting the second best percentage on the team at 42.1 percent, but he only shoots 1.2 threes per game. The other two Gamecocks scoring in double digits, Sindarius Thornwell and Brenton Williams, have shot well from beyond the arc. Thornwell, shooting 2.4 threes per game, has made 36.8 percent of his threes, and Williams has knocked down 39.2 percent, while shooting 4.9 per game.
Summers and Henderson have led the three-point charge for Ole Miss this season. Summers is shooting an SEC-best 54.5 percent on three pointers on 3.6 attempts per game. Henderson shoots 11.5 threes per game, most in the SEC, and makes 39.3 percent of them. No other player in the conference shoots seven per game.
South Carolina and Ole Miss are two of the more foul prone teams in the SEC. South Carolina’s opponents shoot an SEC-high 29.3 free throws per game; Ole Miss allows the second most – 24.4.
The Gamecocks have 10 players averaging nine minutes or more per game, but without Johnson, their rotation may be down to nine players.
Graphic By Tyler Bischoff | The Daily Mississippian
Saiz is expected to get the start, as Andy Kennedy has likely found his best lineup in Summers, Henderson, Saiz, Aaron Jones and LaDarius White.
The game will tip at 3:30 p.m. central and will be televised on FSN.
For continuing coverage of Ole Miss men’s basketball, follow @Tyler_RSR and @thedm_sports on Twitter.
— Tyler Bischoff
tfbischo@go.olemiss.edu
