After transferring to USC, Holloway sat out a year before opting to return to Ole Miss
OXFORD, Miss. (AP) - South Carolina knows Mississippi's Murphy Holloway better than any other team.
That doesn't mean the Gamecocks could figure out a way to stop him. The 6-foot-7 junior forward scored 14 points and grabbed 11 rebounds against his former team, helping Mississippi beat South Carolina 66-62 on Saturday night.
"(Holloway's) a guy that is very important to our program and we all know that," Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said.
"I'm glad he was back in white tonight."
The Rebels (14-7, 4-3 Southeastern Conference) led for most of the night but had to fend off a late South Carolina rally to win. Terrance Henry made a 3-pointer from the corner with 16 seconds left that sealed the victory.
Holloway had his seventh double-double of the season.
In a strange odyssey, he left Ole Miss after his sophomore season in 2010, transferring to South Carolina to be closer to his family, which lives just outside of Columbia, S.C. He sat out last season because of NCAA transfer rules and then surprisingly decided that he wanted to transfer back to Ole Miss. It wasn't clear if Holloway would be allowed to play this season until the fall, when the NCAA and SEC cleared his return to the Rebels. He's been outstanding this season, epitomizing the Rebels' hard-nosed approach. He came into the game averaging 10.2 points and 9.3 rebounds despite an unorthodox left-handed shooting stroke, relying instead on relentless energy around the basket.
Against the Gamecocks, he had another effective night, making 4 of 7 shots from the field while adding four assists and three steals.
Holloway said there was some good-natured jawing on the floor with his former teammates, but the game was mostly business.
"It wasn't too emotional, but I'm glad we won," Holloway said. "We needed that one."
Nick Williams scored 12 points and Jelan Kendrick added a career-high 11 off the bench.
South Carolina (9-11, 1-5) was led by Malik Cooke's 17 points. Brenton Williams added 15 as the Gamecocks lost for the fifth time in six games.
"We put ourselves in a position to win the game," South Carolina coach Darrin Horn said. "But they made the play at the end and we didn't. It was as simple as that."