SEC Basketball: Ole Miss wins start to finish over South Carolina

Ole Miss won in dominating fashion over South Carolina in a wire to wire SEC basketball victory on Tuesday night.

The Rebels won by 12 for a final score of 70-58 and led by as much as 15 while never trailing in the contest.

Going into this matchup both teams were 8-9 looking to turnaround their season in inter-conference play.

Ole Miss were losers of five straight and South Carolina was 2-3 in their last five games.

The Rebels leading scorer for the season, guard Matthew Murrell, put up a game high 23 points on 8 of 15 shooting from the floor and 5 of 11 shooting from beyond the arc. That mark was close to his season high 25 points.

Senior forward, Jayveous Mckinnis had a double-double scoring 14 points ad grabbing a game high 10 boards.

Ole Miss defeats South Carolina in SEC basketball showdown, 70-58

As a team, Ole Miss got to their spots and shot the ball well. They shot 46% from the field (23/50) and a remarkable 41.7% from three point land (10/24).

For South Carolina, freshman Gregory Jackson II put up his usual 15 points but only shot 25% (5/20) from the floor.

He wasn’t alone in his poor shooting though, as the Gamecocks main struggles in the game stemmed from their struggle to put the ball in the hoop.

They shot 37.6% (22/60) from the field and 25% (6/24) from beyond the arc.

One sore spot for Ole Miss was their free throw shooting late in the game. In a closer game it would have mattered more, but the Gamecocks weren’t able to muster up enough points in the end.

By the numbers:

The Rebels were 14/26 (53.8%) from the charity stripe and took double the amount of free throws.

Ole Miss won the rebounding battle 43-31 and had double the amount of assists than South Carolina (18 to 9).

The Gamecocks had only nine turnovers compared to the Rebels 12. But South Carolina had two players foul out and as a team committed 4 more personal fouls.

Looking Ahead:

Ole Miss finally gets their first SEC basketball conference win (1-5) and moves to .500 on the year. Their next two games (Arkansas and Missouri) are against SEC opponents and wins in those games would really help revive their season.

South Carolina drops to 8-10 and remain at the bottom of the conference with just one win after Tuesday’s loss. Luckily for them, they can make up for it as the rest of their games this month are against SEC opponents (Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi State).