Mississippi @ Kentucky preview

Last Meeting ( Mar 5, 2019 ) Kentucky 80, Mississippi 76

No. 12 Kentucky had to battle back from 14 points down against the last-place team in the SEC to win earlier in the week and looks to start the game sharper Saturday afternoon when it hosts surging Ole Miss. The Wildcats trailed by nine through 20 minutes at Vanderbilt on Tuesday before scoring 51 points in the second half for a 78-64 victory to remain tied with Auburn and LSU atop the SEC standings.

“He was real calm,” Kentucky’s sophomore point guard Ashton Hagans told reporters of coach John Calipari’s demeanor at halftime Tuesday. “He wanted us to work it out altogether and talk on it. You know, we came out there and we were the aggressor in the second half and we were just trying to get a win.” The Wildcats, who have won seven of their last eight games overall and three in a row, look to extend their streak to 11 straight victories against Ole Miss in the only scheduled meeting between the teams this season. The Rebels are in the process of turning their season around with three straight double-digit victories after senior guard Breein Tyree scored 27 of his career-high 40 points in the second half for an 83-58 triumph against Mississippi State on Tuesday. “In our league, you’re never out of it when you’ve got 10 or 12 games to go,” Ole Miss coach Kermit Davis told reporters. “There are many great opportunities for quad one and quad two wins. We have a long way to go. (It’s) obviously tough, but we’ve got a great opportunity on Saturday at Kentucky. … We’re going to keep that mantra of winning February.”

TIME: 2 p.m. ET. TV: ESPN

ABOUT OLE MISS (13-11, 4-7): Tyree enters the weekend a close second in the league in scoring (20.0) behind Arkansas’ Mason Jones after recording 101 in the past three contests on 34-of-62 from the field, including 11-of-21 from 3-point range. “I was pretty locked in during the second half and it was one of my best games,” Tyree told reporters after Tuesday’s win. “We’re still trying to get to postseason and we’re waking up a lot of people that had counted us out.” Junior guard Devontae Shuler is second on the team in scoring (11.6) and had 54 combined against SEC co-leaders Auburn and LSU earlier this season.

ABOUT KENTUCKY (19-5, 9-2 SEC): Freshman guard Tyrese Maxey stepped up with 25 points on 10-of-17 from the field against Vanderbilt and Calipari told reporters: “For the first time this year, (Maxey) played with a toughness to win versus just play basketball.” Maxey is third on the team in scoring overall (13.9) behind sophomore guard Immanuel Quickley (14.9), who is averaging 20 the last four contests, and junior center Nick Richards (14.5 points, team-high 8.2 rebounds). Hagans chips in with 12.3 points and a team-best 6.8 assists per contest after collecting 11 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists at Vanderbilt.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Ole Miss junior F Khadim Sy is averaging 12.3 points over his last six games - almost three above his season mark.

2. Quickley is shooting 40.8 percent from 3-point range and 40.2 from inside the arc.

3. Tyree needs five made 3-pointers to become the sixth player in program history to reach 200.

PREDICTION: Kentucky 78, Ole Miss 70