Murray’s career-high 26 sparks Ole Miss past Mount St. Mary’s 77-68 #Murrays #careerhigh #sparks #Ole #Mount #Marys

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — Jaylen Murray scored a career-high 26 points and converted six straight from the free-throw line in the final minute-and-a-half to help Mississippi extend its win streak to eight games, holding off Mount St. Mary’s 77-68 on Tuesday night.

Ole Miss entered the game as one of just 14 unbeaten teams in the country. It is just the fourth time in school history that the Rebels have started the season 8-0 and the first time since the 2007-08 season.

Mount St. Mary’s (2-6) trailed by five points at intermission and was down by just six points after Frantisek Barton’s layup with 12:10 left, 53-47. Matthew Murrell and Murray each scored twice as the Rebels pushed the lead to 61-47. The Mountaineers got within single digits on George Tinsley’s layup with just under two minutes left, but Ole Miss hit eight straight from the line the rest of the way to close out the win.

Murray hit 9 of 15 from the field, hitting 1 of 2 from distance, and was 7 of 8 from the line while distributing six assists to lead Ole Miss. Murrell became the 42nd player in school history to top 1,000 career points in the Rebels win over NC State and now has 1,053 points after posting 24 against the Mountaineers. Allen Flanigan added 10 points and Jaemyn Brakefield grabbed 13 rebounds and had four assists.

Freshman De’Shayne Montgomery came off the Mount St. Mary’s bench to score 22 points with three rebounds and two assists. Dakota Leffew had 16 points and six assists.

Ole Miss plays at Central Florida Sunday. Mount St. Mary’s plays at Loyola of Maryland Saturday.