The Rebels came into tonight’s game seeking to end their two-game losing skid, but it did not happen as the No. 18 Kentucky Wildcats left the Tad Smith Coliseum with an 84-70 win on the road. The Rebels have now lost three straight Southeastern Conference matchups and their first conference matchup here at home.
Junior guard Jarvis Summers led the Rebels with 22 points on 9 of 17 shooting, sophomore forward Anthony Perez added 21 points on 7 of 12 shooting and senior guard Marshall Henderson added 18 points on 5 of 17 shooting.
Ole Miss head coach Andy Kennedy was not excited about how his team approached the game from the opening tip.
“Our approach out of the gate was not as good as it should have been,” Kennedy said. “We kind of got our feet under us a little bit, but we couldn’t sustain anything defensively.”
The Rebels were outrebounded 39-23 and Kennedy takes full responsibility for the way his team is playing right now.
“We’re just not tough enough, physically to put our nose in there, and as a coach saying this at the end of February, it is pretty frustrating,” Kennedy said.
“I just need some other guys on board. For us to win any other games this year, we need to get contributions out of other people. We have shown capable, but when we don’t, not enough bullets in the gun.”
The Rebels have another top-25 team coming into the Tad Smith on Saturday morning against the No. 2 team in the country against the Florida Gators.
“We have to try to move forward as quickly as possible and put this behind us,” Kennedy said. “I hope we learned some lessons tonight.”
Tipoff is scheduled for 11 a.m. in Oxford Saturday and will be televised on CBS.
For continuing coverage of Ole Miss men’s basketball, follow @thedm_sports on Twitter.
— Tyler Carter
tcarter@go.olemiss.edu
