Live updates: Kentucky Wildcats at Ole Miss Rebels college basketball
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Game day: No. 25 Ole Miss 98, No. 14 Kentucky 84
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Tuesday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Mississippi in Oxford, Miss.
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Kentucky basketball didn’t even have 72 hours to shed the disappointment of losing to former UK coach John Calipari last Saturday. It’s back to the beast that is the SEC. Mark Pope’s 14th-ranked Wildcats take on Chris Beard’s 25th-ranked Ole Miss Rebels on Tuesday at 7 p.m. EST at the Sandy and John Black Pavilion in Oxford. ESPN has the television coverage.
Ben Roberts, Ryan Hermens and yours truly will document the dribbling inside the arena. Cameron Drummond and Mark Story will be monitoring the events from back in Lexington. You can follow Ben on Bluesky at @benrobertshl. You can follow the rest of us on X/Twitter at @ryanhermens, @markcstory, @cdrummond97 and @johnclayiv.
Follow a dedicated Kentucky men’s basketball X/Twitter list.
Kentucky-Ole Miss live updates
▪ Final: Ole Miss 98, Kentucky 84
▪ Ole Miss finished the game with one turnover.
▪ Ole Miss leads 91-77 with 2:20 left.
▪ Kentucky has cut Ole Miss’ lead to 78-65 with 7:43 remaining. The Cats have made 12 of 17 shots this half for 70.6%.
▪ The Wildcats have shown a little life in the second half but still trail Ole Miss 72-54 with 11:34 left. UK has made nine of its 12 shots this half. Otega Oweh has 16 points.
▪ Kentucky makes six of its seven shots to start the second half, but it still trails Ole Miss 68-43 with 14:59 left in Oxford. That’s because Rebels are 6-of-8 from the floor this half and are 11-of-19 from 3-point range for the game.
▪ This is Kentucky’s largest halftime deficit since Feb. 16, 2013, when Cats trailed 50-24 at Tennessee. Lost game 88-58. It was UK’s first game after Nerlens Noel tore his ACL at Florida.
▪ Halftime: Ole Miss 54, Kentucky 31
▪ Ole Miss 41, Kentucky 28 with 3:54 left in the first half. Ole Miss 15-of-26 from the field for 57.7%.
▪ This is starting to get ugly. Mark Pope calls his second timeout of the first half. Ole Miss 31, Kentucky 18 at 8:34 mark. UK has committed three turnovers — two shot-clock violations and a 10-second violation.
▪ Travis Perry off the bench at point guard has settled UK down offensively. Hit a 3-pointer out of the left corner. Ole Miss 20, Kentucky 14 with 11:40 left in the first half.
▪ Ole Miss opens 3-of-6 from 3. Leads Cats 15-7. Mark Pope calls time with 14:59 left in first half.
▪ Kentucky starters are Otega Oweh, Jaxson Robinson, Koby Brea, Ansley Almonor and Amari Williams.
▪ Ole Miss starters are Sean Pedulla, Jaylen Murray, Matthew Murrell, Dre Davis and Malik Dia.
▪ Officials for UK-Ole Miss are Doug Shows, Steven Anderson and Byron Jarrett.
Scouting report: Ole Miss
The Rebels are 16-6 overall and 5-4 in the SEC, but they have lost four of their last five games. Ken Pomeroy’s analytics rank Ole Miss 21st in adjusted overall efficiency, one spot ahead of UK. The Rebels are 36th in adjusted offensive efficiency and 12th in adjusted defensive efficiency. Beard is 36-18 overall and 12-15 in the SEC since taking over in Oxford after stops at Texas and Texas Tech. Beard led Texas Tech to the 2019 national championship game where the Red Raiders lost to Tony Bennett and Virginia.
Virginia Tech transfer Sean Pedulla leads Ole Miss in scoring at 15.2 points per game. The 6-foot-1 guard from Edmond, Oklahoma, scored 29 points in Ole Miss’ 92-82 loss to No. 1 Auburn last Saturday. Malik Dia leads the Rebels in rebounding at 5.9 per game. He scored 23 points and grabbed 19 rebounds in Ole Miss’ win at Alabama last month. Jaylen Murray leads the team in assists at 3.7 per game.
Ole Miss men’s basketball roster
Ole Miss men’s basketball schedule
Ole Miss men’s basketball statistics
Scouting report: Kentucky
Kentucky’s 89-79 home loss to Calipari and Arkansas dropped the Wildcats to 15-6 overall and 4-4 in the conference. UK is 22nd in KenPom’s adjusted overall efficiency rankings. The Cats are third in the nation in adjusted offensive efficiency, but just 89th in adjusted defensive efficiency. UK is 2-3 in true road games, but beat then No. 6 Tennessee 78-73 in Knoxville last Tuesday.
For the third straight game, the Cats will be without point guard Lamont Butler. He leads the team in assists at 4.8 per game and is considered among the nation’s better defenders. Otega Oweh leads the team in scoring at 15.6 per game. Amari Williams leads the team in rebounding at 9.0 per game and is averaging 2.7 assists. After ranking in and around the nation’s top 10 in turnover percentage, the Cats have dropped to 24th. Ole Miss is third nationally in that category.
Kentucky men’s basketball roster
Kentucky men’s basketball schedule and results
Kentucky men’s basketball statistics
This story was originally published February 4, 2025 at 6:00 PM.
