The clock has not quite struck midnight for Ole Miss as the team’s Cinderella run continued in the SEC Tournament on Thursday. Chris Beard’s Rebels held on for dear life to defeat Georgia 76-72 in a nail-biter.
The matchup lived up to the part in being an equally-entertaining sequel as the first battle between the two programs this year. Back in January, Patton Pinkins hit a buzzer-beater in overtime to lift Ole Miss to a 97-95 victory. In the postseason showdown, the Rebels built a 23-point lead, just to see it quickly collapse, but managed to hold on.
Ole Miss (14-19), the No. 15 seed, was led by a trio of double-digit performers. AJ Storr had 19 points, Malik Dia scored 17, and Travis Perry had an eyebrow-raising 16 points. James Scott was crucial down low with 13 rebounds. Georgia (22-10), the No. 7 seed, was led by Kanon Catchings’ 19-point performance.
“I think the main thing for us is coming ready to execute the gameplan. That’s something we’ve been bad at all year, and we’re getting a lot better at it at the right time,” Perry told the SEC Network after the game. “Whenever you come out here and you recognize that this could be the last game, with the way our season went, we really just wanted to play hard for each other and [especially] our seniors.”
Ole Miss jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first two minutes, as Georgia got off to a slow start. At the 11:57 mark, a triple by Storr put the red and blue up 14-8. The Bulldogs promptly rebutted, with a fastbreak dunk by Jeremiah Wilkinson cutting the deficit to two points. But that was the closest they would come to their opponent on the scoreboard in the half.
Kamardine knocked down a 3-pointer to end the Georgia run, and Perry hit a pair of deep shots to give Ole Miss a 25-14 lead with 5:05 remaining in the half. The Rebels, leaning on stalwart defense while capitalizing on a poor shooting frame by the Bulldogs, led 34-20 at the midway break, their largest halftime advantage over a conference foe this year.
Georgia, after scoring 60 points in its most recent half of basketball, was limited drastically on the offensive end, shooting 27% from the field and turning the ball over 10 times. The Bulldogs only made one 3-point shot in the frame.
Ole Miss seemingly caught a big break with 17:54 on the second half clock when Georgia’s All-SEC center Somto Cybil was ejected from the contest after elbowing Pery in the jaw while the two were jockeying for a loose ball. Dia connected on a deep shot and a jumper to put the Rebels up 45-24 at the 16:37 mark. Georgia countered with a six-point swing in under three seconds to show life, but it was short-lived.
Patton Pinkins connected on a floater to give the Rebels a 23-point buffer with 13 minutes remaining in regulation. And just when it seemed like Ole Miss had a clear path to victory, a resilient Georgia team had other plans. Four Ole Miss turnovers later, the Bulldogs found their offensive identity and went on a 20-2 run in five minutes, cutting the deficit to 57-52.
Beard called a timeout to regroup his team with just over eight minutes left in the game. Georgia, following a Catchings triple and a Dylan James dunk, made it a one-score game soon after the quick break. Perry hit a much-needed 3-pointer to stop the Rebels’ hemorrhaging, but Catchings remained on a roll, laying the ball into the basket, and the score was 60-58 in favor of Ole Miss with the clock reading 6:14
Georgia’s avalanche of scoring suddenly calmed, with a costly four-minute field goal drought down the stretch, allowing Ole Miss to build a seven-point lead with one minute left to play. As has been thematic for the Rebels this season, though, the game was not able to end without drama.
A Catchings miss from deep could have sealed things for the Rebels, but a foul away from the ball by Scott allowed Georgia to get within four points on the scoreboard at the 15-second mark. An ensuing missed front-end of a one-and-one by Storr gave the Bulldogs a viable shot at mounting the comeback. A quick Georgia dunk made it a two-point contest.
Rebel guard Kezza Giffa was fouled with three seconds left. Giffa missed the first try but was guaranteed a second with his team in the double-bonus. He landed the second look. Ole Miss elected to foul Georgia, instead of letting the Bulldogs hit a potential game-tying 3-pointer to send the game to overtime. Marcus Millender made his first free throw and missed the second. Perry grabbed a heroic rebound, and that was all she wrote.
Overall shooting efficiency was the difference in the game for Ole Miss, especially when the Rebels lost the turnover and rebounding battles. The Rebels shot 45% from the floor and were 9-20 from 3-point range, compared to Georgia’s 36% shooting clip and 9-38 night from behind the arc.
Next up for Ole Miss is an SEC Tournament quarterfinals matchup versus No. 2 seed Alabama on Friday at 6 p.m. CT, with the game airing on the SEC Network and participating SuperTalk Mississippi stations. The Crimson Tide defeated the Rebels 93-74 in Oxford the last time the two squared off.