WATCH: Ole Miss basketball bounced back with an historic performance against Florida
Ole Miss basketball keeps setting records in Chris Beard’s debut season as head coach.
The Rebels won each of their first 13 games to start a season for just the second time ever. They responded from their first loss — at Tennessee, to open SEC play — by running roughshod over Florida on Wednesday and making some additional history along the way.
Ole Miss set a new SJB Pavilion single-game record for points (103) in a stirring, late-night, 103-85 win over the Gators. Wednesday was the Rebels’ first 100-point SEC game since March of 2001.
Western Kentucky transfer Jamarion Sharp set a new school record for blocks (9) to lead the Rebels, who finished with a new program-best mark of 16 blocks overall. Ole Miss improved to 14-1 (1-1 SEC) on the season.
The Rebels next host Vanderbilt on Saturday at noon.
“We’re all going to be in situations from time to time where we have to respond,” Beard said. “One of our core values in our program is responding. Certainly didn’t feel like we played our best the other day at Tennessee. We did a little soul-search. Can’t get too high or too low, but you can tell the truth, and we knew we had to come out tonight and kind of make a stand for ourselves.”
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The 16 blocks tied the SEC record for a single conference game.
They’re the fifth-most all-time in the conference’s history.
Sharp is now No. 70 in the NCAA record books in career blocks. He’s three away from passing former Ole Miss Rebel Reginald Buckner (326). Senior forward Jaemyn Brakefield set a new career-high in points (28) in the win.
“It’s really all about timing,” Sharp said. Sharp, at 7-foot-5, is the tallest player in college basketball. He’s one of 11 new players on Ole Miss’ 16-man roster. Seven are transfers.
“Once I’m in that zone, I time everything. Tonight, I was in that zone.”
