A shorthanded Ole Miss men's basketball team rallied to win first game of Bahamas tour
The Ole Miss men’s basketball team was depleted, to say the least, but the Rebels found a way to rally and pick up the win in its first of three games in Nassau, Bahamas.
Ole Miss defeated the Bahamas Select Team 89-71 in the Summer of Thunder event at Sir Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium on Monday.
The start of the game was a grind for Ole Miss who trailed 39-36 at halftime but surged in the second half to take the lead and eventual victory.
Heading into the week Ole Miss was already playing with a roster not a full strength. Daeshun Ruffin, Robert Allen, Robert Cowherd and Josh Mballa were all out due to injuries. Ruffin did not make the trip.
Due to that head coach Kermit Davis relied heavily on Matthew Murrell, James White and newcomers Jayveous McKinnis and Amaree Abram. Each played at least 21 minutes with Murrell, White and Abram all playing over 24 minutes.
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“I thought we came out and didn’t compete very hard and played a little nervous,” Davis said in postgame comments. “Played three freshman quite a bit. Pretty proud of how those guys played the second half. Our defense picked up, got out in transition. Thought we left a lot of points on the board early in the first half.”
White led Ole Miss with a game-high 23 points followed by Murrell with 16 and Abram with 14.
The defense toughened up in the second half for Ole Miss as the team finished with 12 steals and 10 blocked shots.
Ole Miss caused the Bahamas Select Team to turn the ball over 23 times and scored 24 points off them. Theo Akwuba finished with a game-high three steals while Malique Ewin, Jaemyn Brakefield and Murrell finished with two steals each.
“I thought Malique had some good minutes,” Davis said. “Theo came back and played better. We were able to protect (the ball) and we did that with Matt Murrell, he kind of struggled tonight. That was kind of, I was not worried about Matt, but that other guys could play.”
Ole Miss will play its second of three games this week on Tuesday at 5 p.m. CT when they take on Discount Distributor Rockets. A live stream will be made available close to tipoff.
