By Adam Brown
Sports Editor
adam.brown@hottytoddy.com
The Ole Miss men’s basketball team jumps back into action Tuesday night as they host Nicholls in the Pavilion. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. on the SEC Network.
Ole Miss (1-1) is looking to bounce back from a heartbreaking 83-76 loss on Friday night to Butler. Senior Terence Davis led the Rebels on the floor in scoring with 30 points. Davis currently leads the conference in scoring (23.5 ppg) and 3-point shooting (63.6 percent).
Nicholls enters Tuesday night’s game with a 2-3 record following an 81-54 loss to Baylor in an Emerald Coast Classic campus game in Waco, Texas (Nov. 16). The Colonels will play their fifth straight road game in five different states after picking up a season-opening win over Mississippi College at home. Nicholls has two starters back from its 2017-18 team that went 21-11 overall and shared the Southland Conference title with a 15-3 mark.
Graduate transfer Jeremiah Jefferson paces the Colonels with a Southland Conference-best 19.8 ppg, while Gavin Peppers adds 14.6 ppg. On the other side of the court, senior Daniel Regis leads the nation with 15 blocks on the season. Nicholls is coached by Austin Claunch, who is in his third season on staff but serving his first as the team’s head coach.
“We’ll have our hands full against a good three-point shooting team,” Ole Miss head coach Kermit Davis said. “Our team will have to be in a really competitive state of mind defensively. They shoot the second-most threes of anyone in college basketball.”
The Rebels will play three games over the next five days as a part of the Emerald Coast Classic in Destin, Florida.
Ole Miss leads the all-time series with Nicholls 8-0, which began in 1988. All eight games were decided by double digits with the Rebels winning by an average of 20.9 points. Seven of those eight games took place in Oxford. Ole Miss won the latest matchup between the two programs, a 53-41 victory nearly a decade ago at Tad Smith Coliseum (Jan. 3, 2009).
Fans can watch all of the action on the SEC Network or listen to the call on the Ole Miss Radio Network.
