Saturday night was a joyous night for Tiger Nation as the Memphis Tigers handled Ole Miss. Heading into Saturday night, Memphis had glaring confidence issues. Many thought the Tigers would not stand a chance against Ole Miss. Those people were wrong, and the Tigers earned a hard-fought win over their arch-rival to remain unbeaten at home.

Ole Miss had no answer for the Memphis athleticism on Saturday night. Ole Miss tried to throw everything and the kitchen sink at the Tigers, but Memphis was just too good. A few times throughout the game, Ole Miss would make a run to cut the Memphis lead down by a few points, but Memphis never wavered. Ole Miss saw the return of Daeshun Ruffin in a limited status. It would have appeared that following the week off from Orlando, Ole Miss had gotten lazy in game situations.

For the Tigers, Saturday night was an impressive outing. Any time you can come out against your rival and dominate the way Memphis did, it’s a good night. Memphis locked down the Rebels and pushed the tempo to pressure Ole Miss to play outside their comfort zone. Ole Miss likes to slow the game down and play in the half-court. Memphis handled the Ole Miss 2-3 Zone by forcing the ball down low to DeAndre Williams. DeAndre Williams had a field day with Ole Miss as the Rebels had nobody that could contain him.

Elsewhere for the Tigers, Memphis had great games from Alex Lomax and Kendric Davis. Both guys provided Memphis with an extra spark needed to run away with the victory over Ole Miss.

Overall, Saturday night was an impressive outing for the Tigers and much-needed for the confidence of the team heading into the showdown next Saturday with Auburn. Saturday night was the first test to show that the Tigers could compete with teams in the Southeastern Conference. It might have only been Ole Miss, but a win over the Rebels is a win over a rival. Memphis will return home on December 6th to face Little Rock before traveling to Atlanta to take on Auburn next Saturday.