OXFORD — Ole Miss got big nights from its starting backcourt Tuesday night, defeating Mount St. Mary’s, 77-68, to improve to 8-0 on the season.
Jaylen Murray scored 26 points, while Matthew Murrell had 24 and Allen Flanigan 10. The Rebels shot 46.1 percent from the floor and 33.3 percent from the 3-point line.
"I feel like me and Matt make each other better," Murray said. "I believe in my coaches and they believe in me. ...I just have to step up to the plate."
Mount St. Mary’s, which was led by De’Shayne Montgomery’s 22 points and 16 from Dakota Leffew, fell to 2-6.
Despite the win, Ole Miss coach Chris Beard wasn’t thrilled, especially with his team’s effort on the defensive end of the floor. The Rebels led by as many as 17 points in the second half but couldn’t consistently string together enough stops to blow the game open.
“It’s always better to learn lessons after wins, but I just think we’re kind of robbing banks right now,” Beard said. “We’re not getting caught, but we’re robbing the bank. Eventually we’re going to get caught.”
The Rebels have played close game after close game in the young season, the exception being a 20-point win over North Carolina State a week ago. Tuesday’s game was sandwiched between an emotional, dramatic win over Memphis this past Saturday and a challenging upcoming road test versus UCF Sunday in Orlando.
“Our team’s just gotta show more maturity and more consistency,” Beard said. “…On Saturday we played one of the best teams in the country. We’re going pound for pound, punch for punch. Tonight, again, no disrespect to the opponent — that’s a good basketball team with good players — but I thought from our standpoint we didn’t play well tonight. Back to work tomorrow and see if we can't get everybody in our program on the same page with expectations. I think that's a big thing for our team."
Ole Miss held Mount St. Mary’s to 41.4 percent from the floor and 20 percent (5-for-25) from the 3-point line. Rebounding has been a concern for Ole Miss all season and the Rebels lost the battle of the boards Tuesday, 38-37. The Rebels committed 13 turnovers, one more than the 12 committed by Mount St. Mary’s.
“We have a problem doing the right thing every single time,” Beard said. “We do it sometimes. And that’s like an eighth- or ninth-place mentality. We got to get to where we do the right thing every single time.”
“It comes down to a lot of times where guys just don’t pursue the ball,” Beard said, referring to the rebounding deficiencies. “We got really good players. We’ve got a guy that’s an All-SEC talent that had no defensive rebounds (Tuesday). That’d be a good question for him.”
Beard appeared to be referring to Flanigan, who had three rebounds but none on the defensive end. All of Ole Miss’ other starters had at least three defensive rebounds. Jaemyn Brakefield had a team-high 13 boards to go with four assists and six points.
Ole Miss led by five, 39-34, at halftime.
Tuesday marked the end of an opening stretch that saw Ole Miss play seven of its first nine games at home. The Rebels play in Orlando Sunday at 3 and then meet California on Dec. 16 in San Antonio.
Ole Miss will face Troy and Bryant at home later this month, sandwiching a Dec. 23 game versus Southern Miss in Biloxi, Miss., before opening Southeastern Conference play on Jan. 6 at Tennessee.
