Ladarius White shoots the ball past Mississippi State forward Gavin Ware during the first half of a game in Starkville Jan. 11.
File Photo I The Daily Mississippian
Ole Miss will look to continue its three-game winning streak as the Rebels take on the last team to beat them, Mississippi State, Saturday at 3 p.m. in Tad Smith Coliseum.
Ole Miss has won its last two games on the road, and since Jan. 11, only Ole Miss and Florida have won road games in the SEC. Now, the Rebels (13-5, 4-1 SEC) return home and will look to repay Mississippi State for the only blemish on their conference record.
In the last meeting between these two, Mississippi State won 76-72 and got big nights from two of their forwards.
Roquez Johnson came off the bench and scored 20 points, as Ole Miss struggled to defend him in the post or when he drove. Colin Borchert added another 14 points, as he knocked down three of six 3-pointers.
But the Ole Miss offense sputtered against Mississippi State’s 1-3-1 zone defense. Against that zone, the Rebels shot just 30 percent from the field and had a turnover rate of 28.5 percent, double their season average.
Since that game, Ole Miss has not seen a 1-3-1 zone, mainly because of senior guard Marshall Henderson’s return. Teams refuse to play zone defense against Ole Miss when he is on the floor, as they fear he will get open threes. Regardless of how Henderson performs on Saturday, his presence will be a major factor, as it will get his teammates a better matchup.
In this meeting, Mississippi State may be without starting point guard I.J. Ready. Ready, a freshman, left the Bulldogs’ game against Alabama because of headaches. Since then, Ready has missed the last two games for Mississippi State, both of which were home victories for the Bulldogs. Ready scored 10 points and had four assists against Ole Miss earlier this year.
Ole Miss will have to rely on junior guard Jarvis Summers to score — as it has all season — even though Henderson returns. Summers is averaging 17.9 points per game, and he led Ole Miss with 23 against Mississippi State.
Henderson is averaging 18.7 points per game, as Ole Miss has two players among the top eight scorers in the SEC.
But the Rebels have also gotten big-time production from others. Freshman forward Sebastian Saiz scored 20 points against LSU, although he has just four total points in the two games since then. Sophomore forward Anthony Perez had 22 points when Ole Miss knocked off South Carolina.
But rather than needing one player to have a career game, Ole Miss is better suited for a few players to have quality games, which is what Ole Miss got against Vanderbilt on Wednesday.
Perez had 13 points against the Commodores and junior guard LaDarius White added 11 more. Add in junior big man Aaron Jones scoring eight, and Ole Miss got a little scoring from all over the court, although White and Jones combined to shoot seven of 18 from the field.
It is more realistic for Ole Miss to expect a few players to hover near the 10-point mark than for one guy to go for 20. But inconsistency has been the role players’ demise.
But any combination of Saiz, Perez, White, Jones, junior forward Demarco Cox and sophomore guard Derrick Millinghaus scoring 30 points will be good news for Ole Miss.
Ole Miss and Mississippi State are two of the worst rebounding teams in the SEC, as neither team is grabbing 50 percent of available rebounds. Ole Miss did outrebound Mississippi State 47-37 in the first matchup.
Defensively, Ole Miss leads the SEC in block percentage at 18.3, but Ole Miss managed just four blocked shots last time against Mississippi State.
The Bulldogs lead the SEC in steal percentage at 12.9. Mississippi State had 11 steals against Ole Miss, including seven from Craig Sword.
The game will be televised by the SEC Network, and Ole Miss announced earlier this week that it will be a sellout.
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