It wasn’t pretty at times, but Ole Miss scrapped to a 74-56 victory over a struggling Middle Tennessee State team Friday night in Nashville at Bridgestone Arena as first-year head coach Kermit Davis earned a win over his former team.
Breein Tyree lugged the bulk of the offensive weight with 24 points on 10-of-13 shooting. Bruce Stevens added 12 points of his own, 10 of which came in the first half.
The opening half saw Ole Miss slog through 12 turnovers and a 13-of-27 shooting performance from the field. Middle Tennessee didn’t muster a much cleaner effort as the Blue Raiders turned it over 11 time. It helped the Rebels accumulate a 38-26 lead at the half despite their struggles shooting from the field.
Ole Miss overwhelmed the Blue Raiders on the glass with a 42-30 advantage. Dominik Olejniczak scored 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting and pulled three rebounds. Stevens grabbed four rebounds. The Rebels survived an eight point performance from Terence Davis, who struggled to get in any sort of rhythm from the start. He was 2-of-7 from the field with four turnovers.
Ole Miss ran away with the game in the second half and led by as many as 29 points. The win moved the team to 9-2. The Rebels finish their non-conference slate on December 29 against Florida Gulf Coast at The Pavilion before returning to Nashville on January 5 to open SEC play at Vanderbilt.
