Kentucky races past Ole Miss, 99-76, in conference opener
OXFORD, Miss. – Ole Miss head coach Andy Kennedy knew his team was excited about opening up Southeastern Conference play at home against No. 8 Kentucky. He also knew what a difficult matchup the Wildcats would be, in part, due to their incredible speed.
What Kennedy never expected, however, was for Kentucky to literally run right past the Rebels in a 99-76 rout at The Pavilion Thursday night in the SEC opener for both programs.
“The tone of the game was set by their speed in the open floor,” Kennedy said afterwards.
“They were just running by us in transition, and then we just lost composure. Maybe the game was too big. Maybe we had some guys who were just not ready for a game like this.”
Andy Kennedy on Rebels’ loss to Kentucky
Sebastian Saiz finished with 23 points for the Rebels, while Deandre Burnett tallied 19 points on 7 of 15 shooting. Cullen Neal finished scoreless and took just one attempt at the basket in 17 minutes of action in the Rebels’ loss to Kentucky (11-2, 1-0 SEC).
Ole Miss got behind early and was just not able to recover against a team the caliber of Kentucky.
“Every team has a formula for success. Kentucky has one. We have one. We didn’t follow our formula very well and as a result we dug an early hole and started playing desperate basketball. That’s too good of a team to play desperate against.”
Andy Kennedy
The Wildcats now lead the series 105-13, and have won eight straight against Ole Miss. Kentucky is now 30-10 against the Rebels in Oxford.
Once the Wildcats went on their 13-0 run early in the first half to go up 21-7, Ole Miss (9-4, 0-1) didn’t appear to have an answer on either side of the basketball. The Wildcats scored 21 points off 15 turnovers by the Rebels. Kentucky shot 44.4 percent (8 of 18) from the 3-point line.
The Wildcats made it look easy in the first half, as they shot 61.5 percent (24 of 39) from the field with Malik Monk and Bam Adebayo leading the way at the break, combining for 36 points on 16 of 22 shooting. Isaiah Briscoe was the facilitator all night, ending his evening with a triple-double (19 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists).
Monk ended his night as the team’s leading scorer with 34. Adebayo added 25.
Another double-double for Saiz
One bright spot for Ole Miss was the play of senior forward Saiz, who led the Rebels with 23 points and 13 rebounds. His performance led to his 17th career double-double, his eighth of the season. Rasheed Brooks scored 15, but the rest of the team—outside of the team’s three double figure scorers—managed only 19 points on 13 of 24 shooting.
Saiz saw double-teams all night and when he kicked the ball out to one of the wing players, frequently the shots did not fall. Kennedy’s goal is to run his offense through Saiz, but he realized after Thursday night that Saiz will need help in the post.
“Well, we are certainly dependent upon him (Saiz). And people are doubling him. He had six turnovers tonight but he worked so hard in there. We got to get him some help at the four. Justas (Furmanavicius) is scoring a little bit better, but between him and KG (Marcanvis Hymon), we’ve got to get more efficient at that four spot so other teams don’t completely abandon them and double Sebas on the post.”
Andy Kennedy
Next up
Ole Miss travels to Florida next Tuesday (6:00 p.m., ESPNU).
No. 8 Kentucky hosts Texas A&M next Tuesday (8:00 p.m., ESPN).
(Feature image credit: Josh McCoy, Ole Miss Athletics)
Courtney Smith
Courtney is from Memphis and received his Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts from the University of Memphis in May of 2014. He began his journalism career covering the Memphis Tigers Men's basketball team, which landed him an intern position on 730 Yahoo Sports Radio and a position with Rivals.com. A freelance writer for the Associated Press, Courtney is also a member of The Rebel Walk team and reports regularly on Ole Miss football and basketball. Courtney, the father of a six-year old girl named Soniyah, prefers to cover NCAA basketball and football, but is happy to report on any other sport that comes his way.
