If you’re searching for one reason why Ole Miss is ranked 25th in the nation and LSU is next-to-last in the Southeastern Conference, look at the one thing the Rebels don’t do.
Entering the teams’ Saturday night matchup in Baton Rouge, La., Ole Miss is tied with Marquette in Division I for the fewest turnovers per game at 8.9.
In a 98-84 home victory over No. 14 Kentucky on Tuesday night, the Rebels took avoiding mistakes to a new level by posting an almost-unheard-of 24-1 assist-turnover effort.
“Just one loose ball-handling play away from doing something that I’ve chased in my career,” Rebels coach Chris Beard said. “It’s not about me. I’ve just thought it would always be cool to coach a team that had zero turnovers in a game.”
The one miscue, for the record, came from Sean Pedulla with 14:46 left. But since he is the team’s leading scorer at 14.9 points a game and supplemented a below-par eight-point outing with eight assists, he presumably was forgiven.
An almost-clean game in that department led to an acknowledgment from Beard.
“I told the players after the game that I don’t know if I’ve enjoyed watching a team play more than I did tonight watching us play,” he said. “In the first half, especially.”
Matthew Murrell, a fifth-year senior whose scoring average has dropped from 16.2 ppg last season to 11.8 this year as he battles lower-body injuries, found the best version of himself Tuesday night. He sank 6 of 11 3-pointers and scored a team-high 24 points.
Jaylen Murray, who averages 11.1 ppg and a team-high 4 assists, chipped in a 15-point, 10-assist double-double as Ole Miss (17-6, 6-4) shot 54.7 percent from the field and canned 13 of 30 3-pointers.
While the Rebels are coming off arguably their best game, the Tigers (12-10, 1-8) suffered their fifth straight loss with an 81-62 setback Wednesday night at Georgia. About the only thing they did fairly well was make 12 of 33 3-pointers, but that wasn’t close to being enough.
LSU’s biggest issue this season has been the thing Ole Miss does best — preventing turnovers. The Tigers’ average of 14.2 per game are 324th in Division I, and it was a key to their 77-65 loss against the Rebels on Jan. 11. They had 16 turnovers that day.
While LSU kept turnovers down to a reasonable 10 at Georgia, it ran into another problem. It was dominated 47-26 on the boards, ceding 17 offensive rebounds and 16 points off of those second chances.
“Just absolutely annihilated on the glass,” third-year Tigers coach Matt McMahon said. “The rebounding, the points in the paint and the two-point percentages were clearly the difference in the game.”
Cam Carter leads the team in scoring at an average of 17 points a game but was held to 10 on 2-of-7 shooting from the field at Georgia, although he dished out six assists. UT Martin transfer Jordan Sears is adding 13.8 ppg but is shooting just 38.6 percent from the field.
LSU owns a 127-91 advantage in the all-time series with the Rebels, although it’s lost three of the last four matchups.
–Field Level Media
