14 Steals Pace Ole Miss in Win at Vanderbilt

January 22, 2014

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WCBI/AP) – Jarvis Summers led the Rebels with 16 points and Anthony Perez added 13 as Ole Miss beat Vanderbilt 63-52 on Wednesday night.

The Rebels (13-5, 4-1 SEC) now have won three straight overall and leave Memorial Gym with back-to-back wins in a place where they had won in only six of their first 55 visits.

(AP Photo)
Anthony Perez was a major spark off the bench for the Rebels as Ole Miss used a strong defensive performance to win at Vanderbilt.

Marshall Henderson, who was 1-of-8 in the first half, finished with 11 points for Ole Miss, while LaDarius White added 11.

Rod Odom scored a game-high 18 points for Vanderbilt. Damian Jones had 14.

The Rebels took a 29-20 lead into halftime and went up 33-20 in the opening minutes of the second half. But after a first half when Vanderbilt shot 29.2 percent, the Commodores hit nine of their first 17 in the second half. When James Siakam scored underneath with 6:10 left, that gave Vanderbilt its first lead since 3-0 at 46-45.

Aaron Jones hit a jumper putting the Rebels ahead to stay with 5:48 to go the first of 11 straight points.

Henderson fed a pass to Perez for a layup. Then Odom lost the ball on the sideline leading to a scramble that ended with Henderson hitting a 3-pointer. Henderson then hit a second consecutive 3, pushing the lead to 55-46 with 3:57 left, and celebrated with a big fist pump in front of the Vanderbilt student section that had been booing him all night long when he touched the ball.

The Rebels easily finished off the win.

Henderson’s back-to-back 3-pointers were the highlight of the night for the senior guard who came in as the SEC’s best 3-point shooter and was named the league’s player of the week on Monday. He forced overtime here last season from about 30 feet out had trouble connecting Wednesday night. Henderson also missed a shot just after he crossed mid-court that bounced off the rim before the halftime buzzer.

The Commodores scored eight straight to pull within 33-28 on a layup by Kyle Fuller. When Odom hit a 3-pointer with 12:31 left to pull Vandy within 37-33, that brought the fans to life for the first time all night. His jumper with 8:05 capped a 6-0 spurt and tied up the Rebels at 41 with 8:05 remaining in the first of three ties.