Terence Davis’ 19 points lead Ole Miss past Bradley, 66-49
OXFORD, Miss. – No trouble at all.
Terence Davis tied his career-high with 19 points. (Photo credit: Josh McCoy)
Once Ole Miss grabbed a huge lead Monday night, the Rebels didn’t look back. Terence Davis tied his career-high with 19 points to lead Ole Miss to a 66-49 victory in The Pavilion over Bradley of the Missouri Valley Conference.
For a brief time, Bradley kept things interesting as its zone defense frustrated Ole Miss’ offensive rhythm. But the Rebels (8-3) only needed a couple of shots to fall to pull away from the Braves for good.
Ole Miss led by as many as 27 points following two straight 3-pointers from senior forward Rasheed Brooks, who scored all of his nine points from the beyond the arc. The Rebels turned 17 Bradley turnovers into 18 points.
The Braves drop to 9-19 all-time against current members of the Southeastern Conference.
Ole Miss head coach Andy Kennedy was pleased with his team’s defensive effort.
“Defensively, I thought we were outstanding, really locked in. I thought the changes of the defenses was something we’ve got to get better at. That’s why we were practicing that. The 1-3-1 was effective. We gave up a couple of baskets; other than that, I was really pleased.”
Andy Kennedy
Coming into the game, in a series dating back to 1971, Bradley (5-7) had won 3 of 4 meetings against Ole Miss. But the Braves weren’t able to make enough shots to keep up with the Rebels and leave Oxford a big non-conference win.
Davis nailed a 3-pointer then Justas Furmanavicius converted on a two-handed slam dunk in transition to give Ole Miss a 23-14 lead.
Sebastian Saiz recorded his 6th double-double of the season. (Photo credit: Joshua McCoy, Ole Miss Athletics)
Bradley would keep its deficit at single digits with a short jumper from freshman guard Darrell Brown before the Rebels went on an 11-0 run to head into halftime with the 38-19 lead.
Breein Tyree started the run with two made foul shots, and then Cullen Neal drained two 3-pointers. Deandre Burnett dropped one of his own to excite the crowd.
Neal finished with 12 points for Ole Miss. Sebastian Saiz recorded his sixth double-double of the season (15th of his career) with 10 points and 13 rebounds. He also added six blocks and four steals.
Brown had 14 points to lead the Braves and was the only double-figure scorer for Bradley. The Rebels held the Braves to 31 percent shooting for the game while shooting 42 percent from the field.
Ole Miss recorded 19 assists on 23 made field goals.
“I thought it was outstanding,” Kennedy said of the assists. “I thought we moved the ball well.”
Kennedy: ‘Confidence is like cash..’
Redshirt junior Deandre Burnett, the team’s leading scorer, finished with five points on 1 of 7 shooting. He added five assists and two rebounds in 21 minutes of action.
“I have heard this saying, ‘Confidence is like cash, you got to have some to get some,’” Kennedy said. “I can pat you on the back and say ‘Hey man, I’m going to run a play for you and put you in the game.’ That’s about all I can do. The rest, you have to go make some plays.”
Next up
Ole Miss hosts South Alabama on Thursday (8:00 p.m. SEC Network).
Bradley travels to TCU on Wednesday (8:00 p.m.).
(Feature image credit: Joshua 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.
