Ole Miss turns defense into offense in blowout win over Valparaiso

Dec. 10—OXFORD — The Ole Miss men's basketball team snapped its two-game losing streak Saturday, cruising past Valparaiso 98-61 at SJB Pavilion in a game the Rebels led by as many as 42. Here are three takeaways from Ole Miss' (7-2) win over the Beacons (4-7).

The Rebels host UCF Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

When Ole Miss is at its best, defense leads to offense

The Rebels started the game on an 8-2 run and led 16-6 by way of six fastbreak points caused by disruptive defense. Ole Miss led the Beacons by 23 at halftime; Valparaiso shot just 37% from the field in the half and committed 13 turnovers. The Rebels scored 21 points off turnovers, 12 points off fastbreaks and a whopping 40 in the paint in the first 20 minutes.

For the game, they scored 36 points off 21 turnovers and only committed five themselves.

Ole Miss shot 56% from the field in the game and scored 20 points off fastbreaks alone. A lot of the Rebels' clean looks were due to defense.

"No question about it. That's the biggest thing for us," Ole Miss head coach Kermit Davis said. " ... That's when our team is better, is in transition. I thought we shared the ball, finished some balls in transition, pitched ahead. So yeah, going to be a big part of us going forward the rest of the year, is being able to create offense from good defense."

Ruffin already looks better

Sophomore point guard Daeshun Ruffin made his season debut last week at Memphis, scoring three points in 14 minutes. He, of course, sustained a knee injury last February and missed the remainder of the season; then he suffered a bone bruise in his knee just before the 2022-23 season tipped off. Ruffin doubled his Game 1 performance in the first half alone Saturday on 3 of 4 from the field. He finished with 14 in just 10 minutes of play.

"(I felt) 10 times better. We've been managing my minutes very good, just increasing them each game.," Ruffin said. "So, it's been good though for the most part. I feel like practice has played a big part in me getting ready for this game."

Balanced, efficient attack

Every single player who saw action against Valparaiso Saturday afternoon — 13 in total — scored. Six players in finished with at least 10 points, headlined by junior guard Matthew Murrell's 17. The Rebels only shot 13 3-pointers and were determined to take better shots than they did at Memphis last weekend. That determination showed.

The Rebels' 98 points were the most Ole Miss has scored at the Pavilion since it opened in January 2016.

"That's the most concerted that I've seen Matt since he's been here get to what we call A-range shots, right at the rim," Davis said. "If he does, it's going to open up so many more things for him, shooting and some set things that we run for him. So yeah, that was the whole difference, the mindset of that."

MICHAEL KATZ is the Ole Miss athletics reporter for the Daily Journal. Contact him at michael.katz@djournal.com.