Mississippi

LEXINGTON - After almost beating No. 5 Alabama, Mississippi would seem to have reason to be optimistic against Kentucky Saturday. Still, first-year Ole Miss coach Ed Orgeron says his team has no reason to be overconfident against the visiting Wildcats (1-4). "We are nowhere (near) at the point of our program where we can overlook anybody," said Orgeron. "Kentucky has had some unfortunate miscues during the season. I expect it to be a battle. " Alabama needed a last-second field goal to beat Mississippi 10-7.

Wilmore City Council decided to adopt Pass Christian, Miss., which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, as Wilmore's sister city at its meeting Monday. The city of Wilmore, in collaboration with Asbury College, will work to help bring Pass Christian back to life. The first relief effort will be made over Thanksgiving, when about 80 people from the area, mostly college students, will go to Mississippi and work there for a week. "I'm excited that so many people are willing to invest their holiday to do this work," said Wilmore Mayor Harold Rainwater.

Wilmore Utilities Director Dave Carlstedt said there's no real way to describe what he saw in his one day in Pass Christian, Miss. "It's what you saw on TV and more. It's total devastation," he said at the Wilmore City Council meeting Monday. Carlstedt, his coworker, city operations manager Mike LaSage, and Mark Troyer, associate dean for student leadership development at Asbury College, reported to the council about their short trip to Mississippi last week. They, and Larry Jarrard, also with the college, went to Pass Christian, a town recently adopted by Wilmore as its sister city, to make connections and to check the grounds before a large group of volunteers goes there to work.

BIRMINGHAM - Brian Smith is not just another Southeastern Conference basketball player, but he is just another player at Mississippi. Smith is the youngest son of Kentucky coach Tubby Smith. However, rather than play for his father as his brothers G.G. (Georgia) and Saul (Kentucky) did, Brian went another route. The former Lexington Catholic standout spent last year at Fork Union Military Academy and then joined Mississippi as a walk-on player this year. "I thought he might stick with his father," Mississippi senior Kendrick Fox said.

Katie McKenna of Centre College tied for first place and her team took third place Tuesday at the Rhodes Fall Classic golf tournament in Tunica, Miss. McKenna, a senior, tied with Oglethorpe's Katie Dale after shooting 157 over two days at Tunica National Golf Course. Centre's four-person team score of 687 left the Colonels 19 strokes behind second-place East Central. Birmingham-Southern won the tournament at 655. Marissa Cianchetti tied for 13th place at 171, followed by Whitney Miller (177, tied for 21st place)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Todd Abernathy knows there is no logical reason to think Mississippi can be 40 points better than the first time it played Kentucky. However, the Mississippi junior guard still thinks the Rebels can play with the Wildcats. Mississippi is 0-12 in Southeastern Conference Tournament play against UK going into this afternoon's game here and lost five straight games to end the season. The Rebels also lost 80-40 at Kentucky Feb. 22 when leading scorer and rebounder Dwayne Curtis missed the game because of the death of his brother.

TAMPA -- Darius Miller knew he had what he called a "terrible game" last week when Kentucky lost 60-53 at Florida. In 15 minutes, he didn't take a shot and grabbed just one rebound. He also had a season-high six turnovers. Yet with Kentucky's season on the line here Thursday, guess who the Wildcats gave the ball to with the game on line? That's right. Miller. The freshman from Mason County didn't disappoint coach Billy Gillispie, either, as he scored twice on drives into the lane and also passed once to Perry Stevenson for an easy score in UK's 71-58 victory over Mississippi in the opening game of the Southeastern Conference Tournament.

As offers of help pour into the Gulf Coast region from across the country and around the world, Lincoln County residents are doing their part to help out victims in the hardest hit regions of Mississippi. Mike Bastin, who is working with the Lincoln County Baptist Association, said relief efforts are going great. He and Mike Singleton, along with Singleton's two sons, drove two truckloads of bottled water and baby items down to Gulfport, Miss., on Friday. They have two more trucks ready to go down as soon as they are filled with supplies.

Ruby Calfee Shelton, 79, of Mississippi, formerly of Danville, died Thursday. Arrangements are pending at Stith Funeral Home.

LEXINGTON (AP) - Terrence Jones had 15 points and 11 rebounds to lead No. 1 Kentucky to a 77-62 victory over Mississippi on Saturday, the Wildcats' 50th consecutive win at home. The Wildcats (26-1, 11-0 Southeastern Conference) are 49-0 at home under head coach John Calipari as part of the nation's longest active home winning streak. Kentucky took an early 16-5 lead, but the Rebels took advantage of freshman center Anthony Davis sitting for much of the first half because of foul trouble.

Mississippi guard Devin Booker says he has “always heard about” Kentucky basketball, especially after the arrival of coach John Calipari four years ago. “I know everybody in Kentucky loves the game. That's the kind of spot where you want to play where people love the sport and pay attention to it. Some schools are only about football and don't care about basketball. At Kentucky, it's strictly basketball,” the 6-5 shooting guard, considered one of the top 25 players in the 2014 recruiting class, said.

Mississippi State Coach Vic Schaefer stared at his stat sheet for a solid 10 seconds before finally beginning his opening statement after his Bulldogs lost to Kentucky 100-47 Thursday. The Bulldogs had been 0-3 in SEC play before they traveled to Memorial Coliseum in search of their first conference victory. But Kentucky shellacked those hopes with yet another dominating performance, leaving Schaefer baffled with how to explain the performance. Four Cats finished in double figures - DeNesha Stallworth with 25, A'dia Mathies with 21, Bria Goss with 13 and Kastine Evans with 12. Stallworth reached her new career-high of 25 on a night where she had been recognized pregame with a commemorative basketball.

LEXINGTON - Not only will Kentucky face the Southeastern Conference's best perimeter scorer tonight in Marshall Henderson, but the Cats will also be facing the league's most controversial/entertaining player. He's averaging 19.2 points per game, shooting 35.7 percent from 3-point range and 86.7 percent at the foul line. But he's just as apt to taunt fans as he did at the end of Saturday's win at Auburn after making two clutch free throws or pound his chest after a big play. Kentucky coach John Calipari says Henderson, a junior college transfer, has the “ultimate green light” to shoot.

Mississippi coach Andy Kennedy says it is “mind-boggling” to him that Kentucky freshman center Nerlens Noel is averaging over six blocks per game during Southeastern Conference play. “Incredible, incredible talent at the basket. He's averaging over six blocks a game in league play and that is mind-boggling,” Kennedy said Monday. “Obviously, last year they had a very, very special player at the basket in Anthony Davis. Anthony Davis was probably a little bit bigger, and I'm not sure that he was the presence that Noel is at the basket defensively.

LEXINGTON - Kentucky coach Joker Phillips says playing two true freshmen quarterbacks - Jalen Whitlow and Patrick Towles - against Mississippi State is going to be “exciting” for both teams. “The team we're playing has no idea what they're about to get. We don't know,” said Phillips. That's because UK¿won't have sophomore quarterback Maxwell Smith for this game or likely any more this season. Phillips announced¿Monday that Smith would need surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left ankle after he was hurt on the second play of Saturday's loss to South Carolina.

Aaron and Rebecca Rossiter of Southgate, Ky., announce the birth of their daughter, Claire Elizabeth Rossiter. Claire was born June 22, 2012, at Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati. Claire weighed 7 pounds, 2 ounces, and was 16 1/4 inches long. She was welcomed home by her big brother, Connor; and big sister, Kaylen. Her maternal grandparents are Sam and JoAnn Lowery of Nicholasville. Her paternal grandparents are Diane Wooten of Maryland and the late Roger Rossiter of Mississippi.

GUNTOWN, Miss. (AP) - A man wanted by the FBI for killing a mother and daughter and kidnapping two other girls shot himself to death as officers closed in, but the two children were rescued without injuries and released from a hospital Friday. Authorities who tracked Adam Mayes to a wooded area Thursday evening said they repeatedly ordered him to surrender, but he pulled out a pistol and shot himself in the head. The FBI put him on their Top 10 most-wanted list this week in the killing of a Tennessee woman and her oldest daughter and the kidnapping of the two younger daughters.

Ruby Calfee Shelton, 79, of Mississippi, formerly of Danville, died Thursday. Arrangements are pending at Stith Funeral Home.

STARKVILLE, Miss. - At the Southeastern Conference Media Day in October, Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury thought Kentucky would be good and certainly capable of winning the SEC title despite losing key players off the 2011 Final Four team What Stansbury didn't know then was just how good Kentucky would be and that the Wildcats would be far better than anticipated. “No question about that. I¿don't think anybody anticipated them being this good.

STARKVILLE, Miss. - When his team was down 13 points at halftime, Kentucky coach John Calipari knew his team was not that bad off. “We should have been down 20. They played outstanding and we played OK,” said Calipari. He admitted he got a little “mean” with his team over the way it played against Mississippi State, but also reminded them of what may have eventually made the difference in UK's 73-64 comeback victory. “Indiana did this to us and we came back. This team has a will to win. I told them if the game is close, your will to win will win it,” Calipari said after Tuesday's win that clinched the Southeastern Conference championship.