Second-half surge takes Rebels past Mississippi Valley State

Michael Katz, Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Tupelo
·2 min read

Nov. 26—OXFORD — All it took was a little halftime nudge.

Trailing by five points at halftime to winless Mississippi Valley State, the Ole Miss men's basketball team started the second half on a 9-0 run and didn't look back from there, taking down the Delta Devils 73-58 Friday afternoon at SJB Pavilion.

The Rebels (4-2) outscored Mississippi Valley State 40-20 in the second half.

Graduate transfer Nysier Brooks and senior Jarkel Joiner led the Rebels in scoring with 15 apiece. Senior forward Robert Allen and junior guard Luis Rodriguez chipped in 11 points each.

After a first half where Ole Miss admittedly lacked energy, Joiner and Allen gathered the team together in the locker room, coach Kermit Davis said. The message was clear — they are better than this.

"I just had to tell them like, 'Hey, we're battling adversity right now. This team, we should not be losing to nor should it have been that close of a game, with all due respect to Mississippi Valley,'" said Allen. "We just have to get our stuff together. We don't have time to play. Every game matters. Every little game matters leading up to our goal. So, I just had to get our heads together."

Ole Miss trailed 38-33 at halftime, as the Rebels shot 40% from the field and made just 3 of 10 3-pointers. Three Delta Devils (0-3) scored in double-digits in the first half; the Rebels, meanwhile, had no such players.

Mississippi Valley State forward Robert Carpenter led all scorers with 27 points.

"I'm not trying to take away anything from Mississippi Valley, but we're in the SEC. And give them credit, but our team just didn't have any juice," Davis said. "(Offensively) we're a work in progress, but they did a good job in the second half."

After taking the lead early in the second half, a 20-3 Ole Miss run that began with just under 10 minutes left in the half broke the game open for good.

Brooks scored 11 of his 15 points in the second half, Allen scored all 11 of his after halftime. Four Ole Miss players finished in double-digit scoring.

The Rebels shot just under 42% from the field in the game and held the Delta Devils to just under 38%.

Ole Miss hosts Rider on Tuesday night before a huge home matchup with No. 9 Memphis on Saturday.

"(We're) not where we need to be, for sure," Davis said. "Hopefully we play well against Rider on Tuesday. We have to have a couple good practices."