Ole Miss Men’s Basketball looked to snap against Texas A&M, 88-77, and the No. 11 Florida Gators, 94-75, but dropped both games on Wednesday, Feb. 18 and Saturday, Feb. 21 respectively.
Texas A&M
Ole Miss Men’s Basketball fell to Texas A&M in College Station, Texas. The Rebels led at halftime but could not secure the win.
Texas A&M snapped a four-game losing streak, while Ole Miss continued its losing streak of eight consecutive games, with the last win coming against Mississippi State on Jan. 17.
Ole Miss started off hot and entered the second half up five points, much of that coming from Malik Dia in the first half.
The Rebels took their biggest lead of the game at 63-50 when Dia threw down a dunk with less than 12 minutes left in the game. He followed with another dunk shortly after to make it a 10-point lead with seven minutes left.
Ole Miss had strong efforts from Dia and AJ Storr in this game. Dia had 20 points and five rebounds, while Storr added 21 points. Storr scored 16 of his 21 points in the second half.
Dia appeared to leave the game with an ankle injury late. The Aggies went on a 16-9 run to close the game out. The Rebels did not score for the final three-and-half minutes of the game. The Aggies shot a staggering 61% in the second half.
The Rebels had a season-high 23 fast break points and scored 20 points off of 13 Aggie turnovers. Ole Miss came out flat late in the second half and allowed 47 points, while also shooting very poorly offensively.
Ole Miss shot better from the field throughout the entirety of the game. They had two 20-point scorers and forced more turnovers than the Aggies.
The Rebels continued to struggle in rebounds. A&M outrebounded Ole Miss 37-23 in this contest. Ole Miss is second to last in the SEC in rebounds per game.
Ole Miss has also struggled to score points consistently this season. They rank dead last in points per game, and they also struggle to get to the free throw line.
Florida
After a narrow loss against A&M, Rebel basketball hoped to get back in the win column against Florida but took a heavy 19-point loss at home.
Ole Miss started off hot with a dunk by Ilias Kamardine and a quick forced turnover on the ensuing defensive possession. Malik Dia hit two nice mid-range shots to give the Rebels a 6-3 lead to start the game.
Patton Pinkins and Storr established their presences early with Pinkins hitting a floater followed up by shaking off his defender for a wide open midrange shot. Storr hit a nice shot and looked like a magician by avoiding two defenders and finding a wide-open Dia for a three, which he missed.
The game was tied 10-10, but a nine-point scoring run by Florida put the Gators up 19-12. A tough basket in the paint by Dia ended the scoring drought. There was almost a four-minute gap before Ole Miss’ next bucket, a Dia layup-and-one, although he missed the ensuing free throw.
The fouling during the first was lopsided. With about six minutes left, Ole Miss finally got their first chance at two free throws. Prior to that, they only had the and-one chance from Dia. By contrast, at that same point Florida had 12 free throw attempts, hitting 11.
While Ole Miss had more shot attempts, the free throws and shooting excellence from beyond the arc enabled Florida to have a double-digit lead over the Rebels. Ole Miss only made one 3-pointer in the first compared to Florida’s five.
Additionally, while Florida had better rebounding numbers, their nine turnovers helped keep the game closer in the first.
In the postgame press conference, head coach Chris Beard said that rebounding is needed to win games and that the Rebels came up short in a crucial area.
“Rebounding continues to be an issue,” Beard said. “We still struggle to have everybody’s best personality on a given night … We just haven’t had consistent performances from guys that we need to do that each night.”
Dia led the Rebels in scoring with 11 points, but Florida’s Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh each had 15 and 14 points, respectively.
Dia started off the second strong with six out of Ole Miss’ first eight points.
Florida continued to pile on the scoring by raining down 3-pointers and grabbing offensive rebounds. The second half showed why Florida’s 3-point shooting and paint scoring ability with Condon and Haugh is deadly.
It seemed like every possession the Gators were finding at least two opportunities to shoot because Ole Miss was getting bullied on the glass and could not grab rebounds. Florida had double-digit second chance points.
While second-half adjustments allowed Ole Miss to score more points, Beard said they also allowed Florida more opportunities, too.
“Some of the things that happened in the second half, we were just trying to be our most aggressive self and Florida, like most good teams do, they made us pay when we tried some things strategically different,” Beard said.
Dia and Condon led the game, each scoring 24 points. However, Florida had five players score over 10 points, with three scoring 15 or more while Ole Miss only had three players score double-digits.
“You gotta have four or five guys with double-figure scoring to win games in this league in February and to win games in March,” Beard said.
What’s Next?
Ole Miss faces off against LSU on Wednesday, Feb. 25 at the Sandy and John Black Pavilion. Despite the nine-game losing streak, coach Beard had some thoughts about what to expect from the team moving forward.
“Just a huge thank you for the people that continue to come out and support us and my promise to them, I don’t make a lot of promises, but I’ll deliver on this: There’ll be better days sooner than most people think,” Beard said.
