Ole Miss made history in Tuesday night’s 91-51 beatdown of Southeastern Louisiana. For the first time since the 1955-56 season, the Rebels scored more than 90 points in their first three matchups.
While the offense had no issue putting points on the board, it was the Rebels’ defense that paved the way for the successful outing. Ole Miss (3-0) forced Southeastern Louisiana (1-2) to turn the ball over 23 times. The Rebels scored 39 points off of the takeaways. Guards Corey Stephenson and Ben Henshall accounted for 6 collective steals. Stephenson also had 2 blocks in the strong defensive showing by Chris Beard’s group.
Offensively, Seton Hall transfer Budd Clark led the way with 23 points. A trio of Rebels — Stephenson, Ilias Kamardine, and Santiago Trouet — were runners-up in scoring production with 12 points apiece. Kamardine had a team-best 7 assists, while Trouet led on the boards with 7 rebounds.
“That’s something we take pride on, the defensive end,” Clark said after the game. “We like to play hard, be energetic, and force a lot of turnovers.”
The Lions connected on 5 of their first 6 shots to take an 11-10 lead at the 15:27 mark of the 1st half. The lead was short-lived, as Ole Miss went on a 28-3 run over the next 8 minutes to go up 38-14. Clark hit a jumper with 2 seconds left on the 1st-half clock to send the Rebels to the intermission with a 49-20 advantage.
Clark connected on a pull-up jumper, was fouled, and made the ensuing free throw to keep the momentum going early in the 2nd half. By the midway point of the half, the Rebels led 71-35. Ole Miss took a 45-point lead, its largest of the night, at the 3:08 mark on a Yohance Connor dunk to go up 91-46. Southeastern Louisiana closed the game on a 5-0 run to lose by 40.
Ole Miss will return to the SJB Pavilion on Nov. 17 for a 7:30 p.m. CT matchup against Nicholls. The game will air on SEC Network+ and participating SuperTalk Mississippi stations.