Gamer: Ole Miss men’s basketball dominates North Carolina State, 72-52, in the SEC/ACC Challenge

OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss men’s basketball defeated North Carolina State, 72-52, in the SEC/ACC Challenge Tuesday night at the Pavilion. 

First-half action

Coming out of the gate, Ole Miss started clicking on all cylinders. A little over four minutes into the game, NC State was forced to call a timeout, trailing 10-3 and only shooting 1-5 from the field. Jaemyn Brakefield made a fantastic hustle play to score the Rebs’ 10th point, getting an offensive rebound, turning around, and making a jump shot.

Only a minute-and-a-half later, with 14:12 on the clock, the Wolfpack was forced to call yet another timeout. Ole Miss scored four more points, capped off by an Allen Flanigan jump shot, giving him his sixth point of the night in less than six minutes. The Rebels led 14-3 at this point.

Following the timeout, NC State put a press on the Ole Miss offense, which was easily broken with a Jaemynn Brakefield three-point shot. With 11:52 remaining in the first half, the Rebs led 17-5.

The whole dynamic of the NC State offense changed when center Ben Middlebrooks started getting involved in the scoring game. With 7:36 left on the clock in the first half, the Wolfpack had gone on an 8-1 run, making it a 20-15 game, with 10 of their points coming from Middlebrooks. The Rebs struggled to move the ball and were not hitting shots like they did earlier in the game.

Over the next four minutes of gameplay, two Wolfpack turnovers caused by Matthew Murrell and Jaylen Murray propelled the Rebs to go on a 10-4 run. 

TJ Caldwell hit a big-time three-pointer to make it a 30-19 Ole Miss advantage. NC State went on to score three points, making the game 30-22 with 3:32 remaining before intermission. 

The Rebel offense continued to succeed when Jaemyn Brakefield somehow made a circus-type layup where he was fouled. Jaemyn sank the free throw to top it off the and-1 play.

NEXT LEVEL 💪@Jaemyn1 | #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/wlGArc0NCZ

— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) November 29, 2023

For the remaining 2:36, the score was unchanged at 35-27, and the Rebs headed into halftime with an eight-point lead over the Wolfpack. 

Brakefield led both teams in scoring with 13 points, and in the midst of the action, Matt Murrell scored his 1,000th career point!

𝐄𝐅𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒

How @matt_murre11 reached 1,000 points in his Rebel Career 🫡#HottyToddy | #BuildTheCulture pic.twitter.com/XwwDp1y5hU

— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) November 29, 2023

Second-half action

To begin the second half, the Rebs continued to step on the gas. On their first two offensive possessions, the offense scored a layup and a three-pointer in transition. 

NEXT LEVEL 💪@Jaemyn1 | #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/wlGArc0NCZ

— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) November 29, 2023

The Wolfpack responded with a couple of layups of their own, but with the help of Murray and Flanigan, the Rebs had made it a 44-32 game. 

With 16:18 minutes left, Murray made yet another layup, followed by a layup from DJ Burns, the NC State big man. Going into a media timeout at 15:45, the Rebs led 46-34.

Nearly 20 seconds later, it was a Murrell free throw and a Caldwell three that had given the Rebs their 51st point of the night.

Smooooooooooothhh 😮‍💨@JSMurray10 | #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/ANtcCcNo0v

— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) November 29, 2023

Similar to the first half, Ben Middlebrooks checked back into the game and immediately jammed a dunk, bringing the score to 51-36.

Over the next eight minutes of ball, the Ole Miss offense kept going to work and extending its lead over the Wolfpack. Caldwell, who was a major factor off the bench, notched four points during this stretch, which eventually led to a Jaylen Murray three-pointer that put the Rebs up 61-42.

The score remained the same until roughly six minutes remaining in the game when DJ Burns of NC State made a free throw, which was directly followed up by a Brakefield layup. 

Before the next media timeout, Allen Flanigan had scored two free throws in addition to another layup from Brakefield, who was dominating all night. The Rebs held a 24-point lead, their largest of the game, leading 69-45 with 3:52 left in the game.

Up to this point, Ole Miss also had nine blocks, which is a third of how many they have had in the entire season. The Rebel defense was a problem for NC State, who recently scored 86 points against No. 19 BYU.

To finish the game, the Ole Miss defense only allowed seven more points to post a final score of 72-52, the Rebels’ first 20-point win of the season. 

Brakefield finished with a career-high of 25 points in front of the guard trio of Murrell, Murray, and Flanigan, who were all in double digits.

What a night for JB 🤩

Career-high 25 points on 8-12 shooting 🔥@Jaemyn1 | #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/swdWi9IDk8

— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) November 29, 2023

Another improvement for Ole Miss has been the team’s ability to get to the free-throw line and make their shots from the charity stripe. Tonight, Ole Miss was 85 percent (17-20) from the line, which ended up being an important contribution to the abundance of points scored.

Up Next

Up next will be another difficult challenge for the Rebels as they host the Memphis Tigers in the Pavilion at 1 p.m. this Saturday. Hotty Toddy!