Hits Keep Coming: Ole Miss basketball to be short-handed at Georgia
Ole Miss basketball will be short-handed at Georgia on Saturday.
According to Jake Thompson of the Ole Miss Spirit, lead guard Jarkel Joiner did not travel with the team due to flu-like symptoms. Joiner returned to the Rebel lineup at Florida February 5 after missing three weeks following back surgery. He’d averaged 34.8 minutes and 17.8 points over his last four games.
Second-year guard Matthew Murrell, who, in the same four-game stretch, averaged 15.5 points and 2.0 made-threes per game, did travel. However, he won’t play in the game, set for a 12 p.m. CT tipoff on SEC Network.
Ole Miss is 12-14 (3-10 SEC) on the season. Georgia is 6-20 (1-12).
Veterans Nysier Brooks and Luis Rodriguez are both available, but neither is 100 percent, also because of the flu. Walk-on Matthew McKinney is once again dressing. Ole Miss has 11 total eligible players.
Joiner was questionable for South Carolina, a 77-74 loss four days ago. The Rebels lost on an overtime, half-court buzzer-beater. Even so, Joiner played and tied for the team lead in scoring with 18 points.
“He didn’t practice today, and we didn’t know if he’d play or not,” head coach Kermit Davis said afterwards. “He felt awful all day. He’s got great heart. He showed a lot of toughness tonight.”
SERIES HISTORY VS. GEORGIA
Saturday marks the 122nd all-time meeting between the Rebels and Bulldogs, with Georgia leading 77-44 in the series that began with an Ole Miss victory in Athens on Feb. 13, 1928 (44-37). That would be one of just 14 Rebel victories at Georgia over the next 94 years, as the Bulldogs enjoy a 42-14 edge at home in the series. Ole Miss has countered with a 28-24 series lead in Oxford, but Georgia holds the upper hand both in neutral sites (10-3) and in the postseason (8-2). The Rebels lead 4-2 in overtime contests against Georgia, with the last OT game in the series coming at the 2008 SEC Tournament (L, 97-95). In recent history, three-game winning streaks have been the name of the game. Georgia won three in a row from 2016-18 before a Rebel streak from 2019-20, but the Bulldogs have again won three in a row against Ole Miss in games across 2020-21. Georgia was the last team in the series to win four in a row, doing so across 2014 and 2015.
