RebelSports.net - Four-guard lineup gives Rebels spark in tune-up

November 6, 2009

Neal McCready
Senior Writer

Ole Miss started slow Friday night, but there were several second-half spurts that displayed just how dangerous the Rebels might be this season.

Chris Warren, Trevor Gaskins and Eniel Polynice, a trio of veteran backcourt players who missed all or most of last season with knee injuries, made their Tad Smith Coliseum returns in Ole Miss' 102-62 exhibition victory over Auburn-Montgomery.

All three players made huge contributions. Warren and Gaskins knocked down flurries of 3-pointers to extend the Rebels' lead and Polynice repeatedly drove to the basket with quick-strike precision, giving the Rebels dribble-drive penetration that they consistently lacked in his absence a year ago and the offensive explosiveness they'll need when the season begins in earnest Friday against Arkansas-Little Rock.

Warren scored a game-high 22 points, significant also because the junior point guard missed most of last weekend's scrimmage against Tulane due to an ankle injury. Gaskins and Polynice added 16 and 15 points, respectively. Polynice played 23 minutes, while Warren and Gaskins played just 18 and 17, respectively. Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said he just wanted the returnees to get into a comfort zone in their first game back.

"I thought we accomplished that," Kennedy said. "I thought it was exactly what we needed from a number of aspects."

Trailing by three at halftime, Ole Miss went with a four-guard lineup. It immediately paid off, as the Rebels got a pair of 3-pointers from Warren to quickly take an early second-half lead. After Auburn-Montgomery's LaNorris Smith hit a 3-pointer of his own to tie the score at 41-41, Polynice scored on a driving layup to give the Rebels a 43-41 lead, an advantage they never relinquished.

"It gave us a different output on the defensive end," Warren said. "We made some plays, got a couple of steals and played at our pace instead of at their pace."

Indeed, Ole Miss pulled away with a rapid succession of big shots and big plays. Gaskins, Warren and then Gaskins again hit 3-pointers. Terrico White got into the act with a pair of treys and finished with 16 points. Zach Graham, who played last season with a partially torn patella tendon and had offseason surgery to repair it, turned a steal into a conventional 3-point play. Then Murphy Holloway made a steal in the open court and converted in transition with a thunderous dunk, and just like that, the Rebels led by 25 points with 11 minutes to go.

"Guys were nervous in the first half," Polynice said. "After that, they got the jitters out and in the second half, they just came out and played. That's what we need guys to do to help us out in the long run."

The Rebels made 10 of 14 shots from behind the 3-point line in the second half and 67.6 percent from the floor.

Graham and Holloway finished with seven points each. Freshman Reginald Buckner had four points and seven rebounds. Freshman walk-on guard Logan Nutt added seven points late.

Ole Miss endured a sloppy first half, one that included 11 turnovers and a 1-for-12 shooting performance from behind the 3-point arc, and trailed the Senators, 38-35, at halftime.

"We're obviously trying to find ourselves this time of year as every team is," Kennedy said. "It wasn't surprising. I was trying to play nine or 10 guys in the first half, which isn't realistic, and it's hard to get a rhythm."

"What goes on in the locker room stays in the locker room," Warren said when asked if Kennedy got a little heated following the first-half malaise. "As a team, we knew what we had to do. It was just a matter of us executing."

Ole Miss took a 29-28 lead on Warren's running jumper, but Auburn-Montgomery played a much cleaner first 20 minutes and never let the Rebels pull away. Instead, Jonathan Pascley's jumper tied the game at 35-35 with 1:59 left. Stephen Jordan's free throw with 1:32 left in the half gave the Senators a one-point lead, and Charles Perona's layup at the buzzer extended AUM's advantage to three at the half.

Nathan Thomas and Perona led the Senators with 15 points each.

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