GAME NOTES: The Troy Trojans' season-opening two-game homestand concludes on Monday night when they welcome the Ole Miss Rebels to Trojan Arena.

Ole Miss suffered a surprising home loss in its opener on Friday, as it fell on the wrong end of an overtime decision to Charleston Southern, 66-65. The loss snapped the Rebels' streak of consecutive season-opening victories at 10.

Meanwhile, Troy came out on top in its first game of the season, 85-71, although the triumph was hardly impressive on its home floor against NAIA opponent Brewton-Parker. This matchup marks the first of two straight against SEC opponents for the Trojans, as they take on Georgia next on Friday on the road.

Ole Miss has beaten Troy in all eight previous meetings in the all-time series, although the squads have never before met in Troy.

The Rebels trailed for most of their opener, including by two with under 20 seconds to play in regulation before Stefan Moody forced overtime with a layup. In the extra session, they took a one-point lead with 1:06 to play on a LaDarius White 3-pointer, only to allow a game-winning bucket just before the buzzer. Despite overcoming a deficit as large as 12, Ole Miss still struggled mightily on the night, shooting just 30.2 percent from the field, including 6- of-30 from 3-point range, while committing 17 turnovers. Martavious Newby was one of the few bright spots with 14 points on 4-of-5 from the field and 4-of-4 at the free-throw line. M.J. Rhett came off the bench to score eight. Jarvis Summers (eight points, three assists) knocked down just 3-of-13 field goal attempts before fouling out.

The Trojans made the most of their inferior opponent on Friday, especially in the second half when they made good on 60.7 percent of their field goal tries. Six players finished with double-digit points, led by Musa Abdul-Aleem, who poured in 16 in just 20 minutes off the bench. Chris Bilbo netted 15 points, Wesley Person had 12 points and five assists, Kevin Thomas also finished with 12 points, Kelton Ford scored 11 and John Walton III tallied 10 points and seven rebounds.

After an inexcusable home loss in the opener, coach Adam Kennedy will have his Rebels extra focused and ready to get back on track in this one against a Troy squad that couldn't dominate an NAIA opponent.