Ole Miss will take on the Georgia Bulldogs Saturday in hopes of getting back in the win column after losing four of its last five games. The Rebels and Bulldogs will tip off at 7 p.m. from Tad Smith Coliseum. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN2.
After dropping four of the last five contests since its record 6-0 start in SEC play, Ole Miss (18-6, 7-4 SEC) will look to stop the bleeding on Saturday when it takes on Georgia (12-12, 6-5 SEC) in Oxford.
Ole Miss is now tied with Missouri for fourth in the SEC, just one game ahead sixth-place Georgia. The Rebels, who were once ranked 16th in the country, are reeling and are losing their grip on an NCAA Tournament berth.
Ole Miss will have to focus on stopping the SEC’s second leading scorer in Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Caldwell-Pope averages 17.7 points per game and has scored in double figures in every game this season. No other Bulldog averages more than eight points. Caldwell-Pope is also second in the SEC with 2.2 steals per game.
Georgia is last in the SEC in scoring, averaging 59 points per game. Ole Miss leads the SEC at 79.3 points per game. However, the Bulldogs allow just 60.4 points per game to their opponents. Georgia had won five straight games before falling to Alabama Tuesday night.
Ole Miss has been out-rebounded in six of its last seven games, a surprise for a team that has two of the best rebounders in the SEC in senior forwards Murphy Holloway and Reginald Buckner.
Holloway, who is the leading rebounder in the SEC with 9.7 per game, is averaging 5.25 rebounds per game in the Rebels’ four conference losses. He hasn’t posted a double-digit rebound game since Jan. 26 at Auburn. Buckner did have a productive game in the Rebels’ loss at Texas A&M by posting 13 points and 15 rebounds.
Ole Miss is now 1-3 since sophomore Aaron Jones, the top forward off the bench, tore his ACL against Kentucky.
Freshman point guard Derrick Millinghaus scored 13 against Texas A&M, his third double-digit performance this season. Millinghaus, instead of starting point guard Jarvis Summers, played the final four minutes of the game.
The game will start at 7 p.m. from the Tad Smith Coliseum and will be broadcast on ESPN2.
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