Nov. 3, 2011

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OXFORD, Miss. - Dundrecous Nelson led Ole Miss with 22 points and the Rebels cruised to a 91-62 preseason exhibition win over North Alabama on Thursday night.

Ole Miss opens the regular season next Friday with a home game against Louisiana-Monroe. Tipoff for that game is 6:30 p.m.

Four Rebels scored in double figures as Ole Miss took a 40-29 halftime lead and extended it even further with a 51-33 advantage after the break.

“I wanted to get the young guys some experience and keep our minutes where everybody gets an opportunity to play,” said Andy Kennedy, who enters his sixth season as the Rebels’ head coach. “Obviously you want to get through it unscathed and continue to work on the things that you’re practicing every day. Overall, I think there were some positives.”

Terrance Henry added 14 points, a slimmed-down Demarco Cox contributed 11 points and Nick Williams chipped in 10.

Nelson looked the part of a leader in the first action of his sophomore season. In addition to his game-high 22 points, he dished out nine assists with only one turnover and racked up seven steals. He shot 7 of 14 from the floor and went 6 of 6 from the charity stripe.

“I thought he was tremendous,” Kennedy said.

Murphy Holloway, in his first game wearing a Rebel uniform since transferring to South Carolina and then back to Ole Miss, scored seven points and brought down a team-best 11 rebounds.

Four freshmen got their first action in Ole Miss uniforms – Maurice Aniefiok, Aaron Jones, Jamal Jones and Jarvis Summers. Each brought different things to the table to help the Rebels to victory.

Ole Miss out-rebounded UNA 58-37. The Rebels added 10 blocks and 13 steals against the Division II opponent.

Beaumont Beasley led the Lions with 18 points on the night.