Thomas Graning | The Daily Mississippian
Ole Miss had an opportunity to land a marquee win against a top-10 team and prevailed in impressive fashion.
The Rebels held the 10th-ranked Missouri Tigers (12-3, 1-1 SEC) scoreless for the first 6:37 of the game, while building a nine-point lead. Ole Miss never looked back and won 64-49 in front of an announced crowd of 9,173 at Tad Smith Coliseum.
“I felt like we were in control throughout,” head coach Andy Kennedy said. “Right from jump, I felt like we were in control of the game.”
Ole Miss took advantage of Missouri being without senior forward Laurence Bowers, their leading scorer. Missouri scored a season-low 49 points in their first ever SEC road game.
With Bowers out, Missouri started four guards, and senior forward Murphy Holloway took advantage with a game-high 22 points and eight rebounds, one point shy of his season-high. Holloway now has 905 career rebounds, good for second in Ole Miss history.
“He’s an all-league payer,” Kennedy said of Holloway. “And we were getting those big broad shoulders to that left hand. He’s a man.”
The win improved Ole Miss to 13-2 and 2-0 in conference play and gave Ole Miss the big win their NCAA Tournament resumè needed.
“It gives us a lot of confidence, feel like we can play with anybody,” Holloway said. “All that work put in the offseason, it actually pays off.”
Junior guard Marshall Henderson scored 11 points, eight under his season average, but Kennedy sees that as main reason for Holloway’s big day.
Sophomore point guard Jarvis Summers had 12 points and was perfect from the free throw line, making all eight of his attempts. As a team, Ole Miss made 15 of 20 free throws in the game. The Rebels are shooting over 70 percent for the season, which is third in the SEC.
Junior point guard Phil Pressey led the charge for Missouri. He posted 10 points and five assists, but was 0-for-4 from three-point range. Missouri struggled all night from deep, going just 2 of 18 on three-pointers. Sophomore guard Jabari Brown led the Tigers in scoring with 13 points and knocked down both of the Tigers’ threes.
Missouri’s struggles stemmed from the 19 turnovers they committed in the game, including five by Pressey.
Kennedy picked up his 138th win as head coach of the Rebels. He is six wins away from passing B.L. Graham as the most wins in school history.
Ole Miss will travel to Vanderbilt on Tuesday, Jan. 15th and look to improve to 3-0 in SEC play.
Player of the game: Murphy Holloway – 22 points, 8 rebounds, 4 steals (2nd in career rebounds in school history)
Quote of the game: “If the season ended today, (Holloway) would be the SEC Player of the Year. And I wish it did because we would be the champions.” – Andy Kennedy
Stat of the game: Missouri shot 11.1 percent from three-point range after coming into the game shooting 35 percent from behind the arc on the season
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