Ole Miss had a positive streak come to an end, while an unfortunate one was kept alive on Tuesday night. The Rebels (11-8, 3-3 SEC), after having won three straight conference games, dropped their 10th straight matchup to arguably their Achilles heel, Auburn.
The Tigers (12-7, 3-3 SEC) capitalized on having an advantage in the paint and at the free-throw line. Auburn outscored Ole Miss 38-14 down low and had 16 more rebounds in the contest. Those statistics were magnified by Ole Miss big men Malik Dia and James Scott combining for two points and two boards in 28 minutes of action.
“Dia played 14 minutes tonight and had one rebound, and every shot Dia was taking was a fadeaway or a jumpshot where he was trying to avoid contact. I didn’t think Malik was physical enough tonight,” Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard said. “He wasn’t producing in his minutes played.”
At the charity stripe, Auburn shot a whopping 24 more free throws than Ole Miss, though Beard argued after the game that the officiating was fair, and that the Tigers had more opportunities at the stripe because they were the more aggressive team.
“The free-throw differential, in my opinion, had nothing to do with the officiating. It’s the way they were playing the game. They were demanding the foul. They were drawing the foul,” Beard said. “One team was very aggressive with a mindset to get to the free-throw line, and our team, for the most part, was just settling for shots that you don’t even put the officials in a position to try to [call a foul].”
Steven Pearl’s group was led by Keyshawn Hall’s 19 points and Tahaad Pettiford’s 17 points. Mississippi State transfer KeShawn Murphy, no stranger to the SJB Pavilion, had a double-double consisting of 16 points and a game-high 14 rebounds for the Tigers. Beard’s team only had three truly productive scorers, with AJ Storr’s 18 points leading that effort. Travis Perry, who was 5-for-8 from deep, and Patton Pinkins had 15 points apiece.
Ilias Kamardine knocked down a three-pointer to put Ole Miss up 5-2, but Auburn countered with a 7-0 run to take the lead in the first three minutes of action. A timely Perry triple tied things up 10-10 with 13:34 on the first half clock. A following scoring drought allowed the Tigers to get back ahead.
Ole Miss stole the momentum back when Pettiford air-balled a triple, then missed a subsequent layup, allowing Storr to draw a foul, score on a layup, and make the ensuing free throw. With just under 10 minutes remaining in the half, the game was tied 15-15. And another Ole Miss scoring moratorium paved the way for Auburn to separate on the scoreboard.
An 11-4 run over a six-minute span found the road Tigers up 26-19 with four minutes until the midway intermission. The Rebels, after enduring nearly five scoreless minutes, countered late in the frame. Three-point buckets by Perry and Kamardine fueled an 8-2 Ole Miss run to close the half, and the Rebels trailed 28-27 at the buzzer.
A sloppy start to the second half by Ole Miss opened the door for Auburn to take control of the game — and the Tigers did just that. A quick four points by Murphy kick-started an 11-4 run in favor of the Tigers. Auburn led 39-31 at the 15-minute mark. A rare triple by Rebel forward Corey Chest stopped the bleeding, and a following deep shot by Storr ate into the Ole Miss deficit.
The Rebels trailed 42-37 with 13:30 left in regulation, yet Auburn had an answer for every step in the right direction its foe took. A series of made free throws, with the occasional two-point bucket trickled in, found Auburn leading 62-49 with 6:24 left.
As badly as Ole Miss had played, the team found a way to make it a one-score game in crunch time. Following a triple by Perry, a jumper by Storr, and a pair of free throws by Pinkins after being fouled while securing a steal, the Rebels trailed 66-63 with 3:25 on the clock.
Auburn promptly ended any hope of an Ole Miss comeback, as Pettiford drew a foul on a successful jumper and hit the ensuing free shot. The sophomore fueled the fire even more with a posterizing dunk a minute later, and the Tigers closed out the game on an 11-4 run, winning 78-66.
The loss, according to Beard, was disappointing and a “wasted opportunity” for multiple reasons — one because it occurred in front of a solid weeknight crowd in Oxford, and two, because of a dismal effort by his team.
At the 6:24 mark of the second half, reserve guard Zach Day checked into the game. Day, who rarely plays meaningful minutes, was brought in to send a message to the likes of Dia and Scott, who had been benched for their alleged lack of effort. While Day was in the game, Ole Miss began to chip away at Auburn’s lead before the Tigers ultimately ran away with the game. Beard, recognizing Day’s grit on the floor, said he regretted not subbing the freshman in earlier.
“Zach is a physical guy. There’s no fear in Zach. There’s no softness in Zach. He’s a fearless, physical guy,” Beard said. “As a coach, you have a lot of regrets. It’s part of the job. But I should have put Zach in the game a lot earlier. Zach has earned an opportunity, and I can guarantee he’s going to play major minutes in the next game.”
Next up for Ole Miss is a Saturday morning matchup at Kentucky. Tipoff from Rupp Arena is scheduled for 11 a.m. CT, with the game airing on ESPN and participating SuperTalk Mississippi stations.