OXFORD, Miss.-- Ole Miss ran away from Saint Louis 77-64 tonight in a non-conference men's basketball game at Tad Smith Coliseum. The Rebels scored 48 points in the paint while shooting nearly 60 percent from the field.
"I'm truly disappointed in our defense, because we haven't defended well on the road except for the Oakland game," said Billikens head coach Brad Soderberg. "We need to play tough basketball on the road no matter how tired we are or how many road games in a row we've played. We hang our hat on defense and toughness, and neither was there tonight."
The Billikens struggled with foul trouble in the first half as freshman guard Tommie Liddell came to the sideline with two fouls at the 11:16 mark and senior guard Anthony Drejaj followed shortly thereafter with his second foul at the 8:39 mark. When the Bills lost their senior leader, SLU trailed 18-16 after Rebel forward Londrick Nolen knocked in a pair of free throws. Liddell came back into the game in the latter stages of the half as Ole Miss threatened to pull away. Ole Miss led by as many as 12 before settling for a 39-29 lead at the break. The Rebels shot the lights out in the first half at 59.3 percent, while SLU shot a pedestrian 37 percent and committed nine turnovers. Junior center Ian Vouyoukas gave the Bills some hope with 10 points.
Ole Miss went right to sturdy center Dwayne Curtis to begin the second half with a basket and got another Curtis lay-up in transition on its next possession. That caused a quick SLU timeout, but the Bills never recovered as the Rebels shot better than 60 percent for most of the second half and built the lead to as many as 24. Ole Miss only scored four points in the final 8:17 to provide a closer margin.
Mississippi (5-2) guard Bam Doyne shot 70 percent on his way to a team-high 15 points. Curtis finished with 14, while Trey Hampton tossed in 14 off the bench. Ole Miss point guard Todd Abernethy handed out a game-high five assists and did a solid defensive job on Drejaj, who was 0-of-5 from the field. The Rebels shot 57.1 percent from the floor, 46.7 percent from the arc and only 40 percent from the free throw line.
"We ended up having to play zone, because we couldn't contain them off the dribble," Soderberg said. "And we had to revert to last year's motion offense to set screens for shooters, because we couldn't create anything for ourselves."
Liddell scored 13 of his team-high 15 points in the second half. Vouyoukas finished with 12 points and a team-high six boards. The Bills shot 40.7 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from the arc. Sophomore guard Dwayne Polk led SLU with four assists.
Saint Louis (4-4) returns to Savvis Center on Sat., Dec. 17, to face Kennesaw State in a 1 p.m. start.
