After a hot start to the 2024-25 men’s basketball season, both Ole Miss and Mississippi State found themselves on the wrong end of the scoreboard for the first time this weekend.
The No. 23 Rebels (6-1) and No. 25 Bulldogs (6-1) began their new campaigns on a six-game winning streak, but that all came to an end on Friday — not long after the Ole Miss football team won a second consecutive Egg Bowl versus Mississippi State.
Ole Miss
Chris Beard’s Rebels went toe-to-toe with No. 13 Purdue and led for a decent portion of the second half after trailing by as many as 17 in the Rady Children’s Invitational in San Diego. But a Boilermaker bucket off an offensive rebound in the game’s waning minutes earned Matt Painter’s club a hard-fought 80-78 victory.
Purdue shot 54.2% from the floor while Ole Miss only made 42.6% of its buckets. The Boilermakers won the rebounding battle 37-26 while the Rebels held a 12-7 advantage in turnovers. Trey Kaufman-Renn led the winning team in scoring with 25 points, whereas Jaemyn Brakefield was the red and blue’s top bucket-getter with 18 points.
Though the Rebels tasted defeat for the first time this year, the loss followed an elating 96-85 win over BYU in overtime one night prior. Next up for Ole Miss is a Tuesday night showdown at Louisville in the SEC/ACC Challenge. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. CT.
Mississippi State
Fortune was not on the side of Bulldog fans hoping for a win on the hardwood after the football team fell to its bitter rival on the gridiron. A cold night behind the arc put Chris Jans’ crew behind the eight-ball versus an unranked Butler squad that connected on more than half of its shots from deep. Mississippi State fell 87-77 in the Arizona Tip-Off.
While Butler dominated the rebounding battle and had a superb shooting outing, the SEC team out of Starkville remained within arms reach throughout the contest. But the maroon and white’s scoring woes ultimately proved too costly to overcome. Jahmyl Telfort’s 24 points led a relatively balanced Butler outing. Josh Hubbard, once again, was Mississippi State’s scoring leader with 22 points.
Mississippi State’s inaugural loss of the season followed a dominant 80-58 win over UNLV on Thanksgiving night. Next up is a Wednesday night contest against Pittsburgh in the ACC/SEC Challenge. The game will begin in Humphrey Coliseum at 8:15 p.m. CT.
As always, Ole Miss and Mississippi State basketball games are broadcast on participating SuperTalk Mississippi stations along with various television providers.