No. 23 Ole Miss is one of just five SEC teams that won both of its first two conference games.
The Rebels (13-2, 2-0) will try to make it three in a row when they face LSU (11-4, 0-2) on Saturday in Oxford, Miss.
“I think we’ve played 80 minutes of competitive basketball,” Ole Miss coach Chris Beard said of early SEC play. “I think our hearts have been in the right place.”
The Rebels began the conference portion of the schedule with a 63-51 home victory against Georgia last Saturday, then went on the road to defeat Arkansas 73-66 on Wednesday in what Beard called “Round 2 of an 18-round fight,” in the conference.
“We’re just trying to stay poised and not get too high or too low,” Beard added.
The Rebels rank second-to-last in the conference in rebounding margin (minus-0.4), but they did outrebound both Georgia (35-34) and Arkansas (36-35).
“Hopefully that’s an upward trend for us,” Beard said.
Ole Miss bucked a trend with the win at Arkansas, one of just six wins by road teams in the first 16 league games.
“I’m not a big road and home guy,” Beard said. “Let’s just talk about how to win in this league. You’ve got to have some ‘A’ performances.”
Forward Malik Dia gave that kind of performance with a season-high 21 points and eight rebounds against Arkansas despite being limited to 28 minutes by foul trouble. Sean Pedulla scored 16 points and Dre Davis had 10.
LSU had the same primary problems in both of its SEC losses: turnovers and rebounding.
The Tigers were minus-6 in turnovers and minus-9 in points off turnovers in an 80-72 loss to visiting Vanderbilt last Saturday. They were minus-3 in turnovers and minus-9 in points off turnovers in an 83-67 loss at Missouri on Tuesday.
“We’ve got to figure out a new way to get some solutions to do a better job taking care of the ball against the pressure,” Tigers coach Matt McMahon said. “They’re denying all our passes, putting a lot of pressure on us to beat them one-on-one.”
LSU has to be concerned because Ole Miss has been better than both of those other opponents, leading the SEC in turnover margin (plus-6.6). Vanderbilt ranks second and Missouri is fourth in the category.
The Tigers have improved their ball security from the first half to the second half in both games, though. Against Vanderbilt, they committed 11 turnovers in the first half and four in the second half; against Missouri, they committed 10 in the first half and four in the second.
McMahon credited freshman Curtis Givens III for showing “leadership at the point guard position.” Givens had five points, zero assists and one turnover during 12 first-half minutes and 10 points, one assist and two turnovers in 19 second-half minutes.
LSU has been outrebounded by an average of 37-28 (including 14-6.5 in offensive rebounds) in the two games. That has led to the Tigers being outscored by an average of 17-6.5 in second-chance points.
–Field Level Media
