The culture of Ole Miss basketball seems to be changing. The Rebels, who are 15-2 overall, are winning in a fashion not seen in more than 70 years.
Quentine Winstine | The Daily Mississippian
The fans are taking notice, too.
For the first two home conference games against Missouri and Arkansas, the Tad Smith Coliseum was sold out. The support isn’t lost on head coach Andy Kennedy.
“The spotlight’s gotten a little bit brighter,” Kennedy said. “We’ve had great support, two great crowds, a lot of energy in the building and that helps us.”
Ole Miss opened conference play on the road and handed the Tennessee Volunteers a 92-74 defeat. Junior guard Marshall Henderson lit up Knoxville, scoring 32 points in his SEC debut. He knocked down 13 of 14 free throws, as Ole Miss made 38 of 42 free throws, the most any Kennedy team has attempted or made in a single game.
The Rebels returned home and won its SEC home opener, 64-49, against the Missouri Tigers. It was Missouri’s first road game in the SEC, and the team played without its leading scorer, Laurence Bowers, who had a sprained MCL in his right knee. Senior forward Murphy Holloway took advantage and scored a game-high 22 points in a defensive battle.
Ole Miss then traveled to Nashville and withstood a record-setting 3-point shooting night by the Vanderbilt Commodores. The Rebels trailed by as many as 13 points, as Vanderbilt poured in 17 3-pointers, a Memorial Gym record.
Kevin Bright gave Vanderbilt a three-point lead with 3.2 seconds remaining, but Henderson rescued the Rebels by hitting a 35-foot shot at the buzzer. Ole Miss dominated the overtime session, as Vanderbilt didn’t hit a 3 in overtime, and Ole Miss won 89-79.
Returning home, the Rebels improved to 4-0 with a 76-64 win against the Arkansas Razorbacks. Five different players scored in double figures, and Holloway and senior forward Reginald Buckner recorded double-doubles.
However, the early conference play hasn’t been a breeze for the Tad Smith Coliseum itself.
There were multiple delays during the Missouri game to mop moisture off the floor. More notably, the Arkansas game was delayed for about 30 minutes because the lights went out with 5:37 remaining in the first half. The outage was attributed to a campus-wide surge.
This season will likely see two names atop the Ole Miss record books. Holloway is now 22 rebounds away from becoming the all-time leading rebounder in Ole Miss history, and Kennedy is five wins away from becoming the all-time winningest coach in Ole Miss history.
Henderson honored, Rebels ranked in both polls
Junior guard Marshall Henderson has been named the Southeastern Conference Player of the Week, the league office announced Monday.
A native of Hurst, Texas, Henderson averaged 21.0 ppg in a pair of victories over Vanderbilt and Arkansas. Against the Commodores, Henderson scored a game-high 26 points, including a 35-foot buzzer beater that sent the game into overtime. He added 16 points and a career-high five steals in the Rebels’ win against Arkansas Saturday.
Henderson is the SEC’s leading scorer this season, averaging 18.9 ppg, and has helped lead the Rebels to their first 4-0 start in the SEC since 1936-37. Ole Miss is also ranked in both top-25 polls, checking in at No. 23 in the Associated Press poll and No. 24 in the USA Today/Coaches’, for the first time since 2010.
Ole Miss will host Tennessee Thursday night in Oxford, and the game will also be shown on ESPN2. Tip is set for 6 p.m.
Ole Miss Sports Information contributed to this report.
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