OXFORD — It was South Carolina’s defense that drew acclaim leading into Sunday night’s Southeastern Conference opener at The Pavilion at Ole Miss.
It was Ole Miss, however, that put the clamps on the Gamecocks on its way to a nice 74-69 win to round out 2017.
“It was huge,” Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said. “You only get one opportunity to hit the reset button and tonight was the night. We’re 1-0 in our mind. These games come about every three days now, so this was good for our spirit. We know we didn’t play great basketball but we played well enough to get an SEC win. That does wonders for our psyche and will put a bounce in our step.”
Ole Miss (8-5 overall, 1-0 in the SEC) took the lead for good midway through the second half when Deandre Burnett made the second of two 3-pointers to go ahead 57-55 with 7:47 left. Terence Davis scored the next four points to extend Ole Miss’ lead to 61-55.
From there, the Rebels just held on, nursing that lead on the defensive end.
“It’s big,” Ole Miss guard Markell Crawford. “After the up and down season we’ve had, it’s big for us to get a win to open SEC play.”
Up 66-63 inside two minutes, Ole Miss played stifling defense to force an offensive foul on a rebound attempt. Crawford made two free throws with 1:31 left to extend the lead to 68-63. Chris Silva hit a pair of free throws with 1:16 left to cut Ole Miss’ lead to 68-65, but the Rebels made their free throws down the stretch, getting four from Burnett and two from Breein Tyree in the final minute to preserve the win.
“I think we’ve gotten better defensively in the last two weeks or so,” Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said. “I think I have a pretty clear understanding of our path to success. It’s not a huge road but there is a path. That’s going to take a blue-collar approach. I think our guys are hopefully starting to figure it out.”
Ole Miss has lost three home games in the non-SEC slate of its schedule, losing in overtime to South Dakota State, Virginia Tech and Illinois State. In those games, the Rebels simply didn’t make plays at key moments. On Sunday, even with Terence Davis limited to 19 minutes due to foul trouble, the Rebels found a way to make winning plays.
“I think our effort has been tremendous,” Kennedy said. “We’ve come back after Christmas and really put in work. …We’re figuring out with this team, it’s really about us.”
Ole Miss led, 31-30, at halftime, overcoming a nine-point deficit in the early minutes. Both teams were 10-for-28 from the floor in the opening 20 minutes. Ole Miss had to manage most of the first half with foul trouble. Five Rebels picked up two fouls in the first half, forcing Kennedy to manage minutes. The strategy worked as none of the group picked up a third foul before intermission.
“That put us in a bind from a size standpoint,” Kennedy said, referring specifically to the early foul trouble for Davis and Crawford. “We need (Davis) in the game for sure.”
Burnett led Ole Miss with 18 points. Crawford added 17 and Bruce Stevens picked up 10 off the bench. Chris Silva and Frank Booker led South Carolina (9-4, 0-1) with 21 points each.
“We teach similar things, so it’s like playing yourself in practice,” South Carolina coach Frank Martin, who worked with Kennedy under Bob Huggins at Cincinnati, said. “Obviously the personnel is different and you tweak things to your personnel. We worked together. We spend a lot of time in the offseason talking ball and now we’ve coached against each other for six years now. He knows what I’m trying to do. I know what he’s trying to do. It makes it hard.”
South Carolina won the battle of the boards, 43-30, but Ole Miss held the Gamecocks to 37.9 percent from the floor and forced 14 turnovers. Kennedy said the Rebels’ improvement on defense is a product of better ball-screen defense at the point of attack.
“Our bigs are higher,” Kennedy said. “We’re not allowing those guards to get downhill and force us to rotate.”
Ole Miss plays its SEC road opener on Wednesday night at Georgia.
