Rebs Get Passed Winthrop

Ole Miss got passed Winthrop tonight in the capital city as they won 76-71. The Eagles and the Rebels were neck in neck for pretty much the whole game. Both teams shared the lead for large portions of the game until the Rebels took it over or good with about five minutes left in the game. It was a sloppy night for the Rebels as a couple of players were off the mark all night. Luckily Dwayne Curtis stepped up and played big for the Rebels putting up 22 points. While it was a little ugly, the main thing is a win against a good team with a good RPI. Winthrop is a good team that matches up against any team in the country and has made several runs in the NCAA Tourney.

I will say the crowd was about what I expected. I have heard rumors the crowd was about 4500. Some Jackson homers on the internet will defend their city and say it was a good crowd, yada yada yada. All I can say is no it was not. If you watched this game on tv all you saw was open seats behind the goals on both sides. It looked pathetic. I just really do not understand why we could not get more fans at the game. I think Kennedy will probably say publicly that he thought it was a good crowd for the first game in many years in Jackson. But deep down he has got to be a little disappointed. He brought an undefeated team into the state's capital city to play a fairly good opponent and only had 4500 people there. When are these idiot fans going to realize there are other sports out their besides football? Maybe I am wrong in calling those out that did not go, but I see no excuse why there should not be more than 4500 fans in attendance.(unless you had med school exams)



JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -Dwayne Curtis had 22 points and 11 rebounds and David Huertas hit back-to-back 3-pointers to start a game-changing run as Mississippi beat Winthrop 76-71 Thursday.
Curtis, the tallest player on the court at 6-foot-8, hit two key jumpers in the final 5:07 to end two short Winthrop rallies and Trevor Gaskins helped the Rebels (8-0) remain undefeated and off to their best start since the 2000-01 season with a game-clinching 3-pointer late.
The Eagles (5-4), who were led by Antwon Harris' 17 points, led by as much six in the first half and built a 46-39 lead after a 13-4 run to start the second half. But Huertas ended that run when he hit 3-pointers from the same spot on the right wing just 23 seconds apart to cut Winthrop's lead to 46-45 with 15:74 remaining.
That started a 20-8 run that included five points from Chris Warren, who finished with 10 points and five assists.
The Eagles, three-time Big South champions looking for another win over a major conference team after upsetting Georgia Tech earlier this season, remained in the game till the final 2 minutes.
Chris Gaynor hit a 3-pointer to pull the Eagles within 69-67 with 3:33 to go, but Gaskins hit a 3-pointer from the right wing with 2:12 left to seal the win.
Taj McCullough had 13 points and seven rebounds for the Eagles, while Gaynor and Michael Jenkins added 12.
Gaskins scored 10 for the Rebels, who are three wins away from matching their 11-0 start in 2000-01.