PEORIA, IL - Sophomore forward Donte Thomas led all scorers with a career-best 22 points, but it was not enough to prevent Ole Miss (5-2) from overcoming a slow start en route to a 67-54 win against host Bradley (1-6) Saturday afternoon at Carver Arena.

Sparked by nine early points from Thomas, Bradley made 10 of its first 14 field goal attempts and led by as many as eight points on three occassions in the first half, the last at 20-12 with 9:14 remaining. But a rash of turnovers and a sudden cold shooting spell allowed Ole Miss to rally.

The Rebels took a 33-29 lead into halftime and when Bradley's cold shooting carried over into the second half as an overall 3-for-20 segment, Ole Miss built its lead to as big as 20 points, 54-34 with 8:41 remaining.

Stefan Moody led Ole Miss with 21 points and Sebastian Saiz chipped in with 18 points and nine rebounds. While Thomas posted a career-best scoring total for the second time in three games and reached double figures for the third consecutive game for his third career double-digit scoring effort, no other Bradley player scored more than seven points.

Bradley's early momentum was short-circuited by turnovers, a theme that held true throughout the game. Although Bradley limited Ole Miss to 40.7 percent (24-59) shooting from the field, including a 4-for-16 (.250) effort from 3-point range, the Braves committed 25 turnovers and the miscues led to a 20-8 Ole Miss advantage in points off turnovers in the 13-point margin of defeat.

Bradley begins a 9-game stretch of alternating home and road games and the Braves will return to action with a 6 p.m. CST game Tuesday at Delaware. Bradley returns home to host North Dakota Dec. 5 (7 p.m. CST) at Carver Arena.