On Tuesday night time, No. 25 Ole Miss picked up its largest win ever over No. 14 Kentucky, 98-84.
Previous to Tuesday, Ole Miss’ largest margin of victory over the Wildcats was a 65-55 win in 2001. It was this system’s first win over a ranked Kentucky crew since 2011 whereas the 98 factors have been essentially the most the Rebels have scored in opposition to Kentucky in program historical past.
Ole Miss held a commanding 54-31 lead on the break and led by as many as 27 within the recreation. The Rebels have been 35-of-64 (54.7%) from the ground and 13-of-30 (43.3%) from long-range. Impressively, Ole Miss had 24 assists and just one turnover your complete recreation.
Senior guard Matthew Murrell led the crew with 24 factors (8-of-13 FG), together with this backdoor lower early within the second half that put Ole Miss up 64-37.
For Kentucky, the sting from Saturday’s loss to former head coach John Calipari and Arkansas gave the impression to be actual because the Wildcats regarded like they have been sleepwalking for a lot of the primary half. Apart from trimming the Ole Miss result in 92-81 with 1:20 remaining, the sport was by no means actually doubtful.
The offense was on level as soon as once more. The Wildcats shot 50% general and made 10 threes. Junior guard Otega Oweh led the crew with 24 factors whereas senior middle Amari Williams had 12 factors, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. That was the fourth triple double in Kentucky historical past, becoming a member of Chris Mills (1988), De’Aaron Fox (2016) and Isaiah Briscoe (2016).
After dealing with their third-largest halftime deficit in program historical past and taking part in from behind your complete recreation, it’s obvious the Wildcats want Lamont Butler (left shoulder) again on the ground after lacking his third consecutive recreation on Tuesday.
The senior guard leads the crew with 4.8 assists and 1.8 steals. Kentucky has mixed for 34 turnovers in these three video games, one thing the crew has struggled with mightily in Butler’s absence.
With 4 losses in its final 5 video games, Kentucky (15-7, 4-5) heads again residence for a pair of video games in opposition to South Carolina and No. 4 Tennessee. If the Wildcats are going to show issues round, they’ll want Butler again on the ground and a much-improved defensive effort for a whole recreation.
