Allen Flanigan scored a game-high 29 points and Ole Miss shook off Eastern Washington for a 75-64 victory Friday night in Oxford, Miss.
Flanigan made 11 of 22 field-goal attempts, Matthew Murrell added 11 points and Rashaud Marshall scored eight of his nine points during a decisive second-half run.
Marshall had four baskets and Flanigan had two during a 12-1 second-half run that put the Rebels (2-0) in control.
Cedric Coward scored 16, Dane Erikstrup had 12 and Jake Kyman and Casey Jones each added 10 for the Eagles (0-2).
Ethan Price made a 3-pointer for the Eagles’ first points of the second half, tying the score at 35.
The lead changed hands eight times before EWU’s Andrea Mulibea’s jumper tied the score at 49.
Marshall made four baskets as the Rebels took a 62-52 lead midway through the half.
Conrad’s layup cut the deficit to eight, but Flanigan answered with a layup and Ole Miss took a 14-point lead with five minutes remaining.
The Eagles trimmed the lead to eight points, but the Rebels extended the lead to 14 points on three different occasions to maintain control.
EWU turned the ball over 17 times, leading to 17 Ole Miss points while Ole Miss turned it over just eight times, leading to nine points.
Three Rebels scored as they took a quick 7-2 lead, which grew to 12-4 on a three-point play by Flanigan.
Kyman scored five points and Erikstrup added four during a 13-5 run that pulled the Eagles even at 17.
Flanigan’s layup broke the tie before Sebastian Hartmann made a layup that got EWU even again at 24.
The scored was tied once more amid four lead changes before TJ Caldwell had a 3-pointer and a three-point play to score Ole Miss’s final six points and produce a 34-32 halftime lead.
–Field Level Media