The Ole Miss Men’s Basketball team prevented a LSU Tigers upset Feb. 8 in Baton Rouge. It came down to the last seconds, but Ole Miss won 72-70. The Rebels improved to 18-6 and kept their NCAA tournament hopes alive. 

First half

The first points were not scored until almost three minutes into the game, but the game then went back and forth until another scoring drought midway through the half.

Sean Pedulla led the Rebels in the first half with highly efficient shooting. He went 4-5 from the field and 3-3 from beyond the arch. 

The first half ended 33-39 in favor of the Tigers. Ole Miss was down mainly because of a season-long problem with rebounding; in the first half, the Rebels were offensively out-rebounded 21-16 by the Tigers.

Second half

The second half started with Ole Miss going down by another double-digit deficit, 45-35.

Malik Dia played very poorly in this game. He shot 0-6 from the field and 0-1 from three, with his lone point coming from the free throw line.

Down 70-59, the Rebels went on a 13-0 run. A three-pointer by Jaemyn Brakefield tied the game, then a Dre Davis tap-in pulled the Rebels to a win, 72-70. 

Pedulla and Davis led the Rebels with 17 and 22 points, respectively, accounting for 54% of the Rebels’ total scoring for the game. 

In contrast, LSU was led by the trio of Daimion Collins, Cam Carter and Jordan Sears, who had 15, 16 and 13 points, respectively. 

One of the main reasons LSU lost the game was their inability to convert from the free-throw line. Ole Miss went 20-29 from the line, but LSU managed only 48% shooting from the charity stripe, going 12-25. 

Ole Miss’ next game tips off at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 12 at South Carolina. SEC Network will broadcast the game.