The West Coast has not been kind to Ole Miss this week, as the Rebels have now dropped back-to-back matchups in a span of two days. Chris Beard’s team followed up Tuesday night’s loss to Iowa with a one-point shortcoming against Utah in the late hours of Wednesday night, going into Thanksgiving morning.
Utah’s Don McHenry scored a game-high 27 points and hit 5 of 6 shots from behind the 3-point arc to lead the Utes (6-2) to victory in the Acrisure Classic’s consolation matchup. Ole Miss forward Malik Dia, who had a rough first half, was one board away from recording a double-double with 17 points and 9 rebounds.
Ole Miss (5-2) jumped off to a 14-10 lead within the first 8 minutes of action, as French guard Ilias Kamardine and Kansas transfer AJ Storr had two buckets apiece. Then the momentum pendulum swung in the Utes’ direction. Efforts by an unstoppable McHenry, complemented by a timely deep shot by teammate Kendyl Sanders, put Utah up 25-22 with 8:09 on the clock. Promising Rebel freshman Patton Pinkins nailed a neutralizing triple to tie the game 25-25 before the Utes closed out the half on a high note.
An 11-4 run by the Utes found Ole Miss trailing by 7 points nearing the final 2 minutes of the opening frame. Another crucial deep shot by Pinkins helped keep the Rebels within contention, but it was not enough to spur an offensive ignition from the rest of his teammates. Utah took a 42-34 advantage into the midway break.
With a pair of early scores by Ole Miss, one off a turnover and the other after a missed shot by the Utes, the red and blue had cut its deficit in half within the first minute of the second half. But every forward step the Rebels took was followed by two in reverse. Consecutive Utah 3-pointers, one hit by McHenry and the other landed by Terrence Brown, aided in the Utes taking a 14-point lead, their largest of the night, with 16:13 remaining in regulation.
Beard, displeased with the effort from his starters and looking to send a message, subbed in an entire lineup of reserves — and it worked. In under 4 minutes, Ole Miss shaved 6 points from its deficit, trailing 58-50 with 12:13 on the clock. Then a bulk of the main minute-getters returned to the floor. The game of cat and mouse continued, with Utah having an answer for everything positive the Rebels did.
That was until Storr flashed his athleticism in a coast-to-coast move to the basket on a fastbreak, followed by a successful layup, to cut Utah’s lead to 5 points at the 7-minute mark. As both teams volleyed over the next few minutes, Ole Miss broke through and tied things up on a timely Kamardine triple with under 5 minutes left in the final frame.
Kamardine gave the Rebels their first lead of the half, getting a bucket in the paint off of a Utah turnover. The lead lasted all of 28 seconds. Ole Miss got ahead once again, courtesy of a pair of successful free throws by Dia with 2:24 left. Just when it seemed like things were favoring the Rebels, Dia left the door open for Utah to get back ahead with a 3 after splitting a pair of charity shots. McHenry capitalized with a deep ball to put the Utes up 73-72, nearing the 1-minute mark.
A clutch hook shot from Kamardine gifted Ole Miss a 1-point edge with under a minute on the clock, and a blocked shot by Dia on the defensive end found the Rebels with a golden opportunity to take control of the game. Kamardine had a favorable isolation matchup with a defender, but elected to pass the ball to Eduardo Klafke with a dwindling shot clock in the final moments of the matchup. Klafke, who struggled to corral the ball, missed a 3-point shot that would have all but sealed a win for Ole Miss.
With 4 seconds remaining, Brown found himself at the charity stripe for Utah, following a questionable foul called against Rebel guard Kezza Giffa. Brown connected on both free throws to give the Utes a 75-74 buffer. Ole Miss failed to get a shot off in the final seconds.
Joining McHenry with 10 or more points on the scoreboard for Utah were Brown and Josh Hayes, who had 14 and 10, respectively. Sanders was Utah’s top rebounder with 8 boards. Dia led a balanced attack by Ole Miss, as Kamardine had 15 points, Pinkins scored a career-high 14, and Storr put 10 on the scoreboard.
Ole Miss shot better from the floor than its nonconference foe percentage-wise, knocking down 50% of shots to Utah’s 47%. However, the Utes were much better from deep, hitting 10of 19 deep shots, while the Rebels were an underwhelming 4 of 14 from behind the arc.
Though both teams were even on the offensive glass, securing 10 rebounds apiece, the Utes had an 11-4 advantage in second-chance points. Ole Miss won the overall rebounding battle 30-27 and had 2 fewer turnovers in the head-scratching loss.
The Rebels will eagerly head back to Oxford after a rough stint in California. Next up for Ole Miss is a Tuesday, Dec. 2, battle against Miami in the SEC/ACC Challenge. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. CT, with the game airing on the SEC Network and participating SuperTalk Mississippi stations.