Ole Miss grabs big road win over Illinois State, 81-74

NORMAL, Ill. – The Ole Miss men’s hoops team, after taking a week off for final exams, traveled to Normal, Illinois last Saturday evening and defeated the Illinois State Redbirds, 81-74, behind great performances from Terence Davis and Breein Tyree. 

The two Ole Miss stars picked up a combined 42 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists to help the Rebels to their sixth win on the young season. (Click here for box score.)

Breein Tyree (4), shown here against San Diego, scored a team-high 22 points in the win over Illinois St. (Photo: Josh McCoy, Ole Miss Athletics)

It has been the outstanding play of Tyree that has helped propel the rest of his team into playing some of the best basketball, as of late, that Rebel fans have seen in recent seasons. The junior guard out of New Jersey was able to notch his third game in a row with 20 points or more as he used a tremendous 17-point second half against Illinois State to bring his game total up to an impressive 22 on the night. 

Tyree currently averages 17.9 points per game this season.  

As he has done many times before, Terence Davis made yet another huge impact in the first half against the Redbirds as he took the Rebel offense on several big runs to help Ole Miss secure a solid lead at the midway point. In that first half, he collected 16 points on 7 for 10 shooting—which helped put the Redbirds back on their heels for Tyree’s second-half explosion.  

Head coach Kermit Davis’ Rebels offense was able to use a 52% shooting night, including 36% from downtown, to put up a solid 81 points against Illinois State—buckets they would need near the end of the contest when the feisty Redbirds were threatening to make a closer game out of what had been a pretty clear Rebel victory.

But Ole Miss took care of business at the free throw line, hitting 14 of 15 from the charity stripe, in order to put the game away with mere seconds to go in the contest. 

Other performances of note included a solid 9-point outing for Dominik Olejniczak who shot efficiently on 4 for 6 from the floor. The Rebels’ other big man, Bruce Stevens, added 11 points of his own to the stat sheet, going 5 for 7 from the floor. Between the two, they pulled down 11 rebounds on the evening and will look to continue to elevate their inside game as stronger SEC competition looms on the horizon.

Next Up

Ole Miss’ two-game road trip concludes Wednesday in a neutral-site contest against Southeastern Louisiana (4-4).  The Lions’ recently defeated the Tulane Green Wave, 62-61. Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. (CT), and the game will be televised on the SEC Network. As of Wednesday afternoon, the Rebels were a 17-point favorite in the contest.