Ole Miss has now lost five straight games, as a strong second half was not enough to overcome Texas in Saturday’s 79-68 road loss.
It was a homecoming of sorts for Rebel head coach Chris Beard, who was the Longhorns’ frontman before arriving in Oxford. In his first game back in the Moody Center since being terminated by Texas in Jan. 2023, Beard’s team found itself well behind the 8-ball early, but clawed back, claimed a lead multiple times, and had a viable shot at snapping a losing streak, before ultimately being on the wrong end of a 14-0 scoring run in the final 2:43 of the matchup.
Matas Vokietaitis had a breakout 27-point performance for the Longhorns (15-9, 6-5 SEC), while Tramon Mark scored 19 points for the home team in the double-digit victory. Ole Miss (11-12, 3-7 SEC) was led by an unsung hero in sophomore Eduardo Klafke, who scored 16 points on a 70% shooting clip.
Rebel big man Augusto Cassia opened the game with a 3-pointer, giving Ole Miss a lead that was quickly erased. An 11-2 run led by Vokietaitis and Jordan Pope, along with a favorable whistle that sent the pair to the free-throw line multiple times, found Texas with a 7-point lead at the 16:07 mark.
The Longhorns continued to step on the offensive gas pedal over the next 9 minutes, while scoring became a lost concept for the Rebels in that same time frame. Led by a virtually unstoppable Mark and a seemingly immovable Vokietaitis, Texas jumped up 29-11 with 7:21 on the first half clock. Ole Miss countered late in the half. Catalyzed by a deep shot from Klafke, the Rebels cut their deficit to 10 points with under 2 minutes until the halftime buzzer. Texas took a 37-25 lead into the intermission.
A 3-pointer by Patton Pinkins opened the second half on the right note for Ole Miss, and the Rebels slowly chipped away at what was once an 18-point buffer for their SEC counterpart. A deep shot by Cassia made it a one-possession game, with Texas leading 43-40. A jumper by Pinkins cut the deficit to a point. Then, the Rebels found themselves with their first lead since early in the first half, when Klafke knocked down a 3-pointer with 12:12 left in regulation.
From there, the two teams traded blows and time with the lead, as neither team could separate from the other. With 3:35 remaining in the second half, Ilias Kamardine connected on a deep shot that gave Ole Miss a 68-65 advantage and momentum.
After a Texas miss, the Rebels squandered an opportunity to build their lead down the stretch, and the Longhorns responded with a knockout counterpunch. A costly foul by Cassia, one that fouled him out of the game, on a made 3-pointer by Pope galvanized the home crowd, fueling a run that would allow first-year Texas coach Sean Miller’s crew to walk away with a double-figure victory.
Ole Miss was hampered by Malik Dia and AJ Storr being non-factors, for the most part, in the matchup. Dia, the Rebels’ lone returning starter from last year’s Sweet 16 team, was scoreless while only corralling a singular rebound, while Storr, the team’s leading scorer on the year, was 3-9 from the floor in 14 minutes played.
Texas was a benefactor of having a 9-board advantage in the rebounding battle. The Longhorns grabbed 36 boards compared to 27 secured by the Rebels. While the offensive rebounding battle was a dead heat at 9 by both teams, Texas had 11 more second-chance points.
Ole Miss will return to the home hardwood after a daunting 4-game road stint on Wednesday versus Alabama. The conference contest will tip off from the SJB Pavilion at 6 p.m. CT and will air on the SEC Network, along with participating SuperTalk Mississippi stations.