Ole Miss has now gone 10 straight games without enjoying the taste of victory. On Tuesday, the Rebels, by all accounts, snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, watching an eight-point second-half lead evaporate ahead of a 106-99 home loss to LSU in double-overtime.
A battle between two teams in the cellar of the conference’s standings, one had to come out on top and boost a résumé that doesn’t account for much at this point in the season. The Tigers (14-14, 3-12 SEC) were carried by a 34-point performance from Max Mackinnon. LSU had five other scorers with 10-plus points, highlighted by Mississippi State transfer Michael Nwoko putting 18 on the scoreboard.
The Rebels (11-17, 3-12 SEC) had four players score double-digits, with Ilias Kamaerdine’s 26 points leading the way. Malik Dia had a complimentary 20 points, while AJ Storr scored 19 and Eduardo Klafke had 16.
“It wasn’t two bad teams playing tonight. It was two teams with a lot of adversity, and a lot of games played in the Southeastern Conference,” Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard said after the game. “Something had to break for one of them. We had a couple of dumb fouls at the end of the game, and again, we had the ball in our hands with two chances tonight, and we didn’t get it done.”
A back-and-forth affair played out for the first five minutes, with both teams exchanging the lead. Ole Miss began to separate at the 15-minute mark, courtesy of a Patton Pinkins layup, putting the Rebels up 13-9. A red-hot Mackinnon rebutted with a pair of consecutive 3-pointers to reclaim a Tiger lead. With 12:06 remaining in the frame, LSU had an 18-15 advantage. Ole Miss countered with a triple by Dia solififying a 9-3 run to put the red and blue up 24-21 with 9:51 on the clock.
The Rebels continued to build momentum. A James Scott dunk, followed by a 3-point play by Kamardine, and a pair of free shots from Klafke, found the home team leading 35-29 at the 4:52 mark. But the positive steps by Ole Miss were quickly negated by an LSU group that refused to surrender. A deep shot by Rashad King fueled a 7-0 run that put the Tigers back on top. Ole Miss closed the half with a 42-41 advantage, with Storr connecting on a late layup.
Ole Miss began the second half on an 8-2 run, with 3-pointers by Klafke and Kamardine leading the way. LSU frontman Matt McMahon called a timeout with 18:10 on the clock to regroup his guys, and it worked. Mackinnon landed a layup, and Jalen Reece hit a triple after the break to cut the Tigers’ deficit to two points. Storr then began to heat up, scoring seven points to help give the Rebels a 61-54 buffer with 13:33 left in regulation.
Reece knocked down a timely 3-pointer to stop the run, and just like that, LSU found a way to whittle down the Ole Miss lead to a point with 11:43 on the clock. The Rebels built the lead back, going up a game-high eight points courtesy of a Dia free-throw with 7:04 remaining. The Ole Miss advantage hovered around seven points until the 3:45 mark, when King landed a 3-pointer to make it a 78-74 game.
Nwoko took initiative down the stretch, getting to the free-throw line and hitting his charity shots to chip away. The LSU big man hit a paint jumper with 1:38 left in regulation to tie the game 80-80. Klafke lobbed a pass to Corey Chest, who flushed a dunk to give Ole Miss a momentary lead. LSU tied it back up with a pair of King free throws. With under 10 seconds remaining, the Rebels could not find a successful look, sending the game to overtime.
LSU was without Nwoko in overtime, as he fouled out late in the second half. Ole Miss capitalized early in extras, with Kamardine landing a pair of free throws and Storr securing a lob on a fastbreak and dunking the ball. A quick four-point Tiger swing knotted it up once again. The game remained tied, with Ole Miss having the last shot, once again. Storr had a mid-range look at the buzzer, but did not knock it in the hoop.
Kamardine hit a pair of free throws to start doub, but the tide quickly turned in the visitors’ favor. A Mackinnon 3-point play with 3:49 on the clock gave LSU its first lead since the opening frame. Things escalated from there, with the Tigers closing out on an 11-7 run.
3-point shooting was, by far, the biggest difference in the game, and what allowed LSU to play road spoiler. The Tigers connected on 52% of shots from behind the arc, scoring 33 points from deep, while Ole Miss had a mere 15 points from 3-point range. The Rebels were effective in forcing the Tigers to cough the ball up and turn giveaways into points. Ole Miss won the turnover battle 11-6 and scored 22 points when stealing the ball.
Next up for Ole Miss is a Saturday battle at Auburn. The game will tip off at 7:30 p.m. CT, with the SEC Network and participating SuperTalk Mississippi stations handling the broadcast.