The college baseball season finally arrived in Mississippi for our Division 1 teams. Ole Miss and Southern Miss completed sweeps while Mississippi State won two of three games this past weekend. Ole Miss (3-0) won over Delaware, and USM (3-0) took care of Liberty while MSU (2-2) won opening day and the final game of the VMI series but blew a 10-1 lead in the loss on Saturday. This weekend, Ole Miss will entertain Maryland, USM will host Illinois and MSU will welcome Arizona State for a three-game set. Jackson State (2-1) and Mississippi Valley (1-2) played in the Cactus Jack HBCU Classic hosted by the Houston Astros while Alcorn (0-3) was swept at home. Mississippi State and Southern Mississippi will meet on Tuesday, February 28, at Trustmark Park in the first of three college games to be played in Pearl this year.
In basketball Mississippi State held on to its slim NCAA Tournament hopes by overcoming Ole Miss in the final two minutes of overtime to down the Rebels, 69-61. It was the Bulldogs’ (18-9, 6-8) first sweep of the Rebels since the 2010-11 season. The Bulldogs have won six of their last seven games. Mississippi State will play at Missouri and host Texas A&M while Ole Miss (10-17, 2-12) will play at Auburn and host LSU this week.
Southern Mississippi recovered from a blowout loss at South Alabama last Thursday and came back strong in their final regular basketball season home game with a win over Georgia Southern, 73-62, on Senior Day. The Golden Eagles (24-5, 13-3) finish their home slate at 15-0 to tie the 2011-12 team for most home wins in program history. The conference leading Golden Eagles have a one-game lead over Marshall as they conclude regular season action this week at Ole Dominion on Wednesday and then travel to Texas State on Friday.
The nation’s No. 1 college women’s team South Carolina (27-0, 14-0) survived their Sunday visit to Oxford by pulling out a 64-57 overtime win over the Lady Rebels (20-7, 9-5). The Lady Rebels will host Missouri and then travel to Alabama to close the regular season. Mississippi State (8-6, 19-8) downed Alabama this past week and will finish regular season play by hosting Arkansas and traveling to LSU. Southern Mississippi (18-9, 11-5) made history with a 21-point comeback win, 84-82, over Louisiana-Monroe last Saturday. The Lady Eagles are tied for 26th - the best come-from-behind win in NCAA D-1 history. USM will host Troy on Wednesday in their final home game.
The Alcorn Braves (15-11, 12-2) proved they are the best team in the SWAC with a 75-60 triumph over Jackson State (8-6, 9-18) on the Tigers’ home court. The Jackson State Lady Tigers (16-8, 13-1) are the top SWAC team as they demolished Alcorn, 81-49.
Olive Branch native Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won the Daytona 500 in double overtime and under caution in the longest run of this historic race. The 212 laps and 530 miles were records.
Southern Mississippi veteran sports announcer of 45 years John Cox is the 48th annual NCBWA Russell D. Anderson/Wilbur Snypp Award recipient for his national contributions to college baseball. Cox joins the 2019 winner Jim Ellis of Mississippi State and Ole Miss broadcaster David Kellum as the second-longest tenure college sports broadcasters. Louisiana Tech’s Dave Nitz is in his 49th year behind the microphone.
Little Rock, Mississippi, native Andy Ogletree shot a final round 73 to finish 7-under at 281 to claim a three-stroke win to take the Asian Tour International Series in Qatar, marking his second win in the International Series following a win last November in Egypt.
Tiger Woods finished 1-under in the Genesis Invitational this past weekend. Woods has not finished an official 72-hole tournament under par since the 2020 Masters. The No. 1 player in the world John Rahm won the tournament with a 17-under to win his third tour event in seven weeks.
Listen to Dale and Marshall Wood on the Brouhaha Sports Show that will be aired this Tuesday at 5 p.m. on WABO FM 105.5 in the Waynesboro area. This week’s guest will be former Auburn and NFL player Jason Campbell. To listen to the broadcast on your computer or smart phone anywhere in the world, go to Google Chrome; go to wabo105.com and click listen live. You may also go to The Brouhaha on YouTube to listen to archived shows. Dale has been writing sports since 1973. Contact him at ddmckee18@yahoo.com
