Caleb HarrisThe Ole Miss men’s basketball team asserted their dominance over Rider in a 75-51 blowout win, accompanied by a strong second half surge by the Rebel offense. History was made in the SJB Pavilion on Nov. 30 as the Rebels tied their career high in rebounds as a team with 57.
Transfer center Nysier Brooks capped a new career high with 15 rebounds, and he was a huge factor in the Rebels setting a season-high in rebounds. The seven footer is the second Rebel to record 15 rebounds in a game since 2017.
Ole Miss needed every rebound and extra possession after a slow scoring and sloppy first half. The Rebels controlled the boards all night as they out-rebounded Rider 57-36, denied Rider shots with five blocks and forced them to shoot at a 30.2% from the field goal throughout the game.
“We’ve just been harping on rebounding drills… and they put it in the game,” head coach Kermit Davis said. “I thought Nys (Nysier Brooks) was a big part of that and just finished a lot of possessions.”
The first half was a low scoring affair. As soon as Ole Miss would gain monteum to break open the game, the Broncs would come back and make their shots. With the score 9-8 six minutes into the first half, junior guard Austin Crowley made a crucial jumpshot that broke open the half with more scoring in a tug of war to see who could control the game.
Neither team shot well in the first half. Senior guard and captain Jarkel Joiner led the team in scoring with seven points in the waning minutes of the first half. Ole Miss shot 34.5% from the field, a season low, 25.0% from the three-point line, which is their bread and butter so far into the season, and a disappointing 44.4% from the free throw line. The Rebels had a six point advantage going into halftime, leading the Broncs 31-25.
As the old saying goes, it was a tale of two halves. After Rider scored the first buckets of the second half, Ole Miss came out on a 6-0 run that was over three minutes. Combine that with a Rider drought that went on for over five minutes, and that’s the recipe that Ole Miss needed. The scoring outpour started. At the 10 minute mark, sophomore forward Jaemyn Brakefield connected with his first three of the night and that would trickle down to the rest of the team.
Joiner wanted to be a part of the action as well, and he connected on three three’s in a row. Joiner led the team with 18 points, went 6-16 from the field goal, 4-9 from the three point line and 2-2 from the free throw line.
Joiner was accompanied by three other Rebels that posted double digit numbers. Sophomore guard Matthew Murrell had 14 points, senior forward Robert Allen had 11 points and junior guard Crowley had 10 points. The Rebels built up a comfortable 29 point lead with 3:04 in the game and a 15-0 scoring run that sealed the 75-51 victory over Rider.
The next home game for the Rebels will be a tough matchup as they face off against the No.18 Memphis Tigers. The Ole Miss offense will be tested against the Tigers’ stout defense.
“(Memphis is) a really hard-playing, well-coached team, obviously some pros on it for sure,” Davis said. “We’ve got to get the Pavilion right on Saturday with Club Red and get this place jumping, and I think it will. I think it’s almost sold out, it will be a great environment in here.”
The highly anticipated matchup will tip-off at 11 a.m. CST on ESPN 2, Saturday Dec. 4.
“The cliché is it’s another game, but this game is not another game,” Joiner said. “It’s a big game for us.”
