Ole Miss Rebels Dominate Florida Gators in Home SEC Opener

The Ole Miss Rebels men's basketball team picked up its first conference win of the season on Wednesday night versus the Florida Gators.

OXFORD, Miss. -- The Ole Miss Rebels men's basketball team picked up its first conference victory of the Chris Beard Era on Wednesday night with a 103-85 win over the Florida Gators in The Sandy and John Black Pavilion. This was a great bounce back game for the Rebels, who opened SEC play last Saturday with an abysmal 90-64 loss to the No. 5 Tennessee Volunteers.

The Rebels (14-1, 1-1 SEC) battled back and forth with the Gators (10-5, 0-2 SEC) early in the first half, but quickly pulled away with a 29-20 lead over Florida with less than eight minutes in the period. Ole Miss entered the locker room at halftime with a 44-40 lead over Florida thanks to a big first half from forward Jaemyn Brakefield who racked up 14 points in the period. 

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Ole Miss kept the pressure on to start off the second half thanks to a six-point surge from Brakefield entering the first media timeout of the half. Guard Matthew Murrell extended Ole Miss' lead by 20 points at the 12 minute mark with a big three-pointer before Florida responded with two quick scores at the 11 minute mark. The Rebels had themselves a block party versus Florida, as the team set a new program record with 16 blocks. Center Jamarion Sharp also set an individual program record with nine blocks.

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Ole Miss was led in scoring by Brakefield with 28 points, and he was joined in double digits by Murrell (23) and guards Allen Flanigan (17) and Jaylen Murray (12). As a team, the Rebels shot 59 percent from the field and 40 from three compared to percentages of 41 and 29 from Florida, respectively.

The Rebels now have a date set with the Vanderbilt Commodores on Saturday in the SJB Pavilion. Vandy owns a 5-10 overall record entering its matchup with Ole Miss. Tip-off is set for 12 p.m. CT, and the game will be televised on SEC Network.