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Rebs Hawaiian Christmas

Reginald Buckner

Photo by Joshua McCoy/ Ole Miss Sports Information

Missed opportunity for Rebel hoops

By: David Collier

David is a junior broadcast journalism major, Meek School of Journalism and New Media

Email him at: dlcollie@go.olemiss.edu

Ole Miss went into the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic with the hopes of improving their NCAA Tournament resume, but instead, they left Hawaii with a huge missed opportunity.

The Rebels’ nonconference schedule had virtually no chances for a notch in the quality wins column of the resume, so having the opportunity to face Arizona, San Diego State or Miami in the holiday tournament would’ve been a plus for Ole Miss.

However, a opening-round loss to Indiana State put the Rebels in the losers’ bracket, which ended their hopes of having those chances to improve that all-important resume.

It wasn’t all bad on the trip to Hawaii though.

Although the Rebels have plenty of problems that have to be corrected, they did head back to Oxford with a pair of wins, including a 81-66 win over the host school Hawaii to wrap up the tournament Tuesday.

In the win, the Rebels got a first-half lead before seeing it slip to a one-point deficit at halftime. The game went back-and-forth in the second half before Ole Miss used solid defense, efficient offense and good free throw shooting to pull away late.

Senior forward Murphy Holloway led the Rebels in scoring with 18 points, while sophomore Aaron Jones added 10 points off the bench.

Ole Miss ends the nonconference slate on Jan. 4 when they take on Fordham in Oxford.

Follow David on Twitter @DavidLCollier

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