Must Win for Rebels

ATLANTA- The Ole Miss Rebel Basketball team travels to one of the South's great basketball meccas, the Atlanta Georgia Dome for the annual SEC Tournament. The third seeded Rebels must defeat the reeling sixth seed out of the SEC East, South Carolina Gamecocks to have any chance of advancing to the Big Dance later this month.

The Rebels were defeated by the Gamecocks (14-15, 5-11) last month 79-73 in Columbia. The Gamecocks are led by their quick ball moving perimeter offense captained by Bruce Ellington. The 5-9' point guard averages just over thirteen points a game, and can distribute the ball well in the paint. The Rebels have struggled defending in the paint all season also as they have let countless big bodies work on their disadvantage of height.

The Gamecocks utilize their go to guy in the paint, Sam Muldrow (reigning SEC defensive player of the year), extremely effectively. The 6-9' senior uses his superior athletic ability to muscle over big defenders and score the ball. He averages just over eleven points per game. The Gamecocks have the pieces to go far in the tournament, but they just could not finish in the regular season.

Ole Miss coach, Andy Kennedy, stated Wednesday: "What gives me hope is we have shown "capable," we're not hoping for something that we haven't seen. We just need to see it more consistently. We have been really all over the map offensively, even from half to half where we'll shoot as we did in our last game against Arkansas." The Rebels shot close to fifty percent against the quick defending Razorbacks, but also shot a dismal thirty-eight percent against faltering Auburn. The Rebels will need a great shooting performance out of their two senior guards, Zach Graham and Chris Warren to ensure a victory Thursday.

Rebel Guard Zach Graham has averaged just over fourteen points a game and has been the biggest leader and influence on this Rebel Team. He stated:"Definitely. I felt a sense of urgency since the beginning of the season, before the season even started. But I think really with our team, it just comes down to focus. When we're focused and ready to play and ready to come out and play hard, we do fine." The Rebels need this kind of leadership and mentality to finish well in this rugged SEC tournament.

This game is a must win, but as everyone knows anything can happen in this always exciting tournament. There can be many different obstacles thrown at the Rebels, but it will go unnoticed unless this team finished strong.

Sources:
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