Bulldogs suffocate Rebs in Athens, lose by 11

Ole Miss dropped its SEC road opener to Georgia, 71-60 Wednesday evening, and the score may have flattered the Rebels a little. Yante Maten had 15 points and seven rebounds, but it was his defense that kept Ole Miss out of the paint. The Rebels settled for mid-range jumpers and three-pointers all night and never seemed to get rolling offensively.

With Mississippi State and its dominating interior defense coming to Oxford Saturday, Andy Kennedy won’t like how his team looked against a similar Georgia team. Quite frankly, they looked like a team battling to stay out of the cellar in the SEC.

Here's what we learned:

Terence Davis isn’t having the year they need.

Davis had four points and three rebounds, but unlike Sunday foul trouble wasn’t the reason for the quiet night. No, he shot just 2-of-11 and 0-of-6 from three-point range. Davis is the the Rebels best three-point shooter and needs to be the catalyst for the offense.

After scoring 25 points against Bradley things were getting on track but through two SEC games Davis has just eight points and a 66 offensive rating (compared to his 109 average last year). Maybe Davis is just slumping but unless this corrects—and in a hurry—Ole Miss will have to look elsewhere for a spark

Breein Tyree flashed some of the athleticism he showed late last year.

On his cousins birthday (you may have heard his cousin once caught a ball on his helmet in the super bowl!!), Tyree had his best offensive night of the season scoring 17 points on 7-of-15 shooting. The Rebels were 6-of-26 on the night from three-point range but Tyree had half of these on only four shots. That’s not great. Kennedy had to like the spark he was able to provide off the bench, especially with Deandre Burnett having a poor shooting night.

Ole Miss couldn’t look much worse but only lost by 11.

The box score shows just how bad things were for the Rebels. They got to the line just six times but allowed Georgia to shoot 22 free throws. After assisting on 75 percent of made field goals against the Gamecocks they had just six assists on 25 baskets tonight. The Rebels showed some effort on the offensive glass though, out rebounding the Bulldogs 18-to-12. But with starters only scoring 33 points, you won’t win many SEC road games.

Here’s your extended box score from last night:

MSU visits Saturday before the spring semester begins. They’ll need to make some shots early and provide some of their own energy before the toughest slate of games on their schedule.