Jaemyn Brakefield shares excitement over chance to make a run in SEC Tournament

Jaemyn Brakefield couldn’t be more excited for Ole Miss to have a fresh start at the SEC Tournament.

On Wednesday, the Rebels defeated South Carolina by a score of 67-61, setting the tone for what they’re hoping is a long run. Speaking with the media afterwards, Brakefield explained that he’s just taking it one game at a time, hoping to see the NCAA Tournament at the end of the tunnel.

“I’ll just say we came in here with a clean slate,” started Brakefield. “We knew it was going to be a new season. The past was the past. We’re just trying to come here, 0-0. Just take each game at its own, and really just come here.

“We’re going to focus on tomorrow starting now. Really just knowing that we played them to the wire in January. We just know we’re going to piggyback off how we played them, watch the film and follow the game plan.”

Moreover, Brakefield scored 16 points and pulled down seven rebounds for the Rebels against the Gamecocks. Now, the forward has his mind in one place, focused on the Tennessee Volunteers, and trying to keep Ole Miss’ season alive.

Regardless, the Rebels have the right attitude to make a run, and it’ll be fascinating to watch them try their hand at doing so in the coming days.

Ole Miss playing with a chip on its shoulder in SEC Tournament

Continuing, Jaemyn Brakefield and teammate Amaree Abram sat on the SEC Network set after defeating South Carolina in agreement on one key aspect heading into the second round of the SEC Tournament — The Rebels have a chip on their shoulder, and they are going to use it.

“Just wanted to come here and play with a chip on our shoulder,” Abram said. “We just got something to prove. We taking it one game at a time.”

Brakefield agreed.

“I feel like we got momentum.” Brakefield later added. “Just coming in here, I knew nobody wanted to play us first round. We got a chip on our shoulder and we’re going to one game at a time. Now we’re gonna transition our focus on Tennessee. We’re gonna learn from in January when we played them and we’re gonna piggyback off that.”

Abram scored a team-high 20 points off the bench while Brakefield had 16 points and seven rebounds.

The Rebels defense held the Gamecocks to only 41.7% shooting from the field and 28.6% from beyond the arc.

“We knew the matchups that we wanted to have,” Brakefield said. “We got great defenders. We know they had great offensive players. We just wanted to keep our matchups the same and really just try to dial in on that. We knew they’re a great team. GG Jackson, he finished with 24. He’s a great kid so we tried to contain him as much as we could but he’s a great player.”

Ole Miss has to get back on the grind quickly with its next SEC Tournament game coming Thursday against Tennessee. Brakefield said the team is going to stay focused over the next 20 hours or so before opening tip.

“We’re right to the next one,” Brakefield said. “Not gotta do too much celebrating. We’re gonna know that we got stuff to work on.”

But that doesn’t the Rebels aren’t going to enjoy their victory.

Interim head coach Win Case told the SEC Network in his post-victory live hit that he expects to walking into a good atmosphere in the locker room.

“It was great,” Case said. “The thing I love about our guys, we always talk about happy locker rooms. This is gonna be a happy locker room.”

On3’s Peter Warren contributed to this article.