LOOK: Ole Miss has won 10 of 11. Good thing. The SEC’s never been stronger.
SEC basketball went into the weekend on an historic tear.
The league had a collective record of 157-20 in non-conference games this season, including a ridiculous 42-2 mark over the previous 13 days. Every other conference had twice as many losses.
The SEC, with 10 teams in the AP Top 25, again flexed its muscles. Granted, No. 4 Kentucky was whipped by Ohio State, 85-65. But No. 17 Ole Miss easily dispatched of Queens, 80-62, while No. 2 Auburn took care of No. 16 Purdue.
The Boilermakers are responsible for the Rebels (11-1) only loss this season. Ole Miss next has a ranked matchup at Memphis on Saturday at 1 p.m. CT on ESPN2. The Tigers are coming off a 13-point loss to unranked Mississippi State.
“We do believe there’s a relationship between experience and winning,” second-year Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard said Friday in an interview with ‘Field of 68.’
“You definitely have to have younger players in your program to develop. The bloodline is always going to be high-school recruiting. But we absolutely wanted to give this year’s team a chance by having enough experience to be successful in this SEC, which is going to be a gauntlet.”
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Ole Miss rosters 10 seniors. The Rebels feature seven players who’ve scored over 1,000 career points.
Virginia Tech transfer guard Sean Pedulla is one of them. Pedulla was one of four Rebels to score double-digit points against Queens. He had a game-high 25 on 9 of 14 shooting. Pedulla added three rebounds, two assists and four steals.
Ole Miss finished with 11 total steals. The Rebels have produced 10 or more steals in eight games this season. Sam Houston transfer guard Davon Barnes dished out a season-high six assists as the starting replacement for injured fifth-year senior Matthew Murrell.
“We did not play our better game of the year, but I thought our guy’s hearts were in the right place for the most part,” Beard said following the win over Queens. “We took a lot of threes tonight. From where I was sitting they were good, open shots. We just didn’t make a lot of them. How do you win a basketball game on a night when the shots going down? You got to find another category.”
Ole Miss keeps finding a way. Good thing, too. The SEC has never been stronger.
The included highlights and photos from Queens were provided by Ole Miss basketball.
Dre Davis
Sean Pedulla
Eduardo Klafke
John Bol
Sean Pedulla
