Gamer: Ole Miss defeats Eastern Washington, 75-64, behind Allen Flanigan’s career night
OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss defeated Eastern Washington, 75-64, Friday at the SJB Pavilion, led by transfer Allen Flanigan’s career night. Flanigan finished with 29 points, eclipsing his prior high of 24.
First half:
To open up the game, Matthew Murrell scored four of the first nine points with the help of a Jaylen Murray three-pointer and a Jaemyn Brakefield layup. With 17:04 left, the Rebs held a 9-4 lead, which continued over the next two minutes until Allen Flanigan scored a layup and was fouled in the process.The Rebs extended the lead 12-4 with 15:42 left in the opening half.
From this point on, Eastern Washington cleaned up its offense and slowly started to chip away at the lead. The Eagles went on a 9-3 run to bring the score to 15-13.
The two teams kept answering one another. Eastern Washington was able to tie the game four times and take the lead twice, once with 4:21 left and the other with 3:53 remaining.
To close out the half, the Rebels overcame a 30-28 deficit and scored the next six points to regain their lead.
After going back and forth, the halftime buzzer sounded with Ole Miss ahead, 34–32. Flanigan led the team with nine points.
In the first half, the Rebels shooting struggles continued as they made 13 of 32 shots (40%) in the first half. They were five for six in the opening period from the free throw line after going 12-of-25 in Monday’s contest.
Seven-foot-five inch Jamarion Sharp led Ole Miss with three rebounds and two blocks in the opening period. Ole Miss was outrebounded 23-12 in the first half, but only turned the ball over three times compared to Eastern Washington’s nine.
The Ole Miss defense collected eight steals, another positive for Chris Beard’s team.
Second Half:
Much like the first half, the score was back and forth in the second until about 9:00 minutes were left in the game when the Rebels led 56-52. They were able to extend their lead from that point on and went on to finish with the 75-64 win.
The Ole Miss offense was propelled by Allen Flanigan, who ended his night with a career high of 29 points and five rebounds. In the midst of Flanigan’s dominant performance, he also scored his 1,000th career point!
Additionally, freshman Rashaud Marshall potentially etched his name into the starting lineup for the Rebs tonight. The forward scored nine points and snagged one rebound, making a significant impact in the last ten minutes.
As mentioned previously, the Rebels needed to make some shots, and that’s exactly what they did in the second half. They finished 29-61 on field goals on the night, a 48% clip. That’s an 11 percent jump from the season opener.
One area of concern Chris Beard talked about in his post-game press conference was rebounding, which he says will get a lot of attention in practice this week. The Rebs were outrebounded 38-29 in tonight’s matchup.
To catch Ole Miss in action next week, be there at the Pavilion on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. as the Rebels host the Detroit Mercy Titans. Hotty Toddy!
