SPRINGFIELD –– After the first 20 minutes of play Saturday, it looked as if the matchup between Massachusetts point guard Jabarie Hinds and Mississippi point guard Stefan Moody wasn’t going to live up to the hype that everyone had hoped for.
Hinds, who came in averaging a team-high 19.7 points per game, was held scoreless in the first frame while Moody – the 14th best scorer in the country averaging 22 points coming into the contest – had just six points on 2-of-8 shooting.
That’s when Moody took over.
Whatever was said to him in the locker room inspired him, and whatever flavor Powerade he drank clearly gave him the lift he needed over the final 20 minutes.
The 5-foot-10 point guard scored 24 of his 30 points in the second half as the Rebels ran away from the Minutemen (5-2) in a 74-64 loss at Mass Mutual Center.
Ole Miss (6-2) head coach Andy Kennedy wasn’t worried that Moody’s first half struggles would translate over to the final 20 minutes of the game.
“No, I mean it is what it is. I’m going to play him until he can’t play anymore,” Kennedy said.
Moody played 37 minutes and finished 9-of-18 from the field and 9-of-10 from the free throw line.
“We run a lot of things through him. He’s making much better decisions with the ball as he’s becoming more and more comfortable. And at the same time we’ll still allow some exchanges that get him off the ball and run him off some screens where he is very, very good on catch and shoot,” Kennedy said.
Moody’s impact was immediately felt exactly three minutes into the half when a ball tipped off Rashaan Holloway’s hands giving him a wide-open path to the rim that he flushed down for the two-handed dunk.
UMass coach Derek Kellogg called the play “the biggest play of the game” as the Rebels outscored the Minutemen 43-31 in the second half.
“I thought that was a huge play because it seemed like we had a little bit of momentum,” he said. “It actually got him going where all of a sudden he had some confidence. He went unconscious for a little while there.”
After his dunk, Moody scored 15 of the next 19 points for the Rebels.
“(Andy Kennedy) has a lot of confidence in me. I don’t shy away from any shot that I can potentially take,” Moody said. “Coach always tells us to have a short memory for your shots, so if I take one and I don’t make it, I’m just looking for the next one.”
Hinds couldn’t match Moody’s play in the second half as his lone point of the night came on a free throw with one minute, 52 seconds remaining with the Minutemen trailing 69-60.
After opening the game in man defense, Kennedy made the switch to a 1-3-1 zone for Ole Miss that gave UMass’ guards trouble with 6-foot-9 forward Anthony Perez heading the top of the zone.
“Jabarie’s a great player and everyone’s going to have an off-day. He’ll bounce back,” forward Seth Berger said, who scored a career high 14 points. “We’re not really concerned about him and he’ll bounce back in practice tomorrow.”
Kennedy shared the same praise for Hinds.
“He’s a terrific player. I remember him from West Virginia and he’s a guy that can really score,” he said. “He just never seemed to establish rhythm and that’s the reason that you change defenses.”
Hinds wasn’t the only Minutemen guard who struggled Saturday as Trey Davis scored a season-low nine points on 4-of-18 shooting, including 1-of-7 from 3-point range. Despite scoring a team-high 24 points, Donte Clark struggled for a large portion of Saturday’s game.
After a made 3-pointer with 15:29 remaining in the first half, Clark didn’t score again until the 15:13 mark of the second.
“The three guards for UMass are very, very good. That team is going to win a lot of games,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy added: “I think that 1-3-1 was a little problematic for them. Typically teams with smaller guards, and UMass with Hinds and Davis, who are smaller, they have a hard time seeing over that so it makes them passive which was really our objective. I think in the second half it became problematic because they weren’t making shots at the rate that they normally do. As a result they are trying to drive that zone, which was given us opportunities in the open floor.”
Andrew Cyr can be reached at [email protected], and followed on Twitter @Andrew_Cyr.
