Ole Miss Men’s Basketball continued its losing streak at home to Alabama, 93-74, on Feb. 11 and in-state rival Mississippi State, 90-78, Feb. 15.
Alabama
Despite a strong first half that saw the Rebels hold leads as large as nine points and only ended with a small 32-30 deficit, Alabama blew the game open in the second half, pulling away and leading by as many as 22 points.
The Crimson Tide shot 39% from the floor, 38% from three-point range and 92% from the free-throw line. Latrell Wrightsell Jr. led the team in scoring with 21 points, followed by Labaron Philon with 18 points and Aiden Sherrell with 15 points.
Ole Miss shot 42% from the floor, 36% from three-point range and 62% from the free-throw line. AJ Storr led the Rebels with 27 points, followed by Eduardo Klafke with 12 points and Travis Perry with nine points.
As is standard with Alabama head coach Nate Oats, the Crimson Tide relied heavily on three-point shots, with the team shooting an astounding 45 3-pointers, connecting on 17 of them.
“Give them credit, from my vantage point, their halftime adjustment was they were driving to pass, and we got caught in between when to help and when to stay on the shooters,” Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard said in a postgame press conference. “Things just didn’t go our way, but give Alabama credit, it was a good game tonight.”
Although the Rebels have had the better shooting percentages, this largely comes from the fact Ole Miss shot the ball far less than Alabama. Despite Ole Miss leading Alabama in both points in the paint, 36-16, and points off the bench, 47-34, Alabama out-rebounded the Rebels 44-39, and scored 20 second-chance points, while the Rebels only scored nine.
Alabama was simply the more physical team on Wednesday night, dominating the glass and proving why Oats boasts the No. 3 ranked scoring offense in the country, shooting the ball over 60 times in total. This is the Rebels 6th-straight SEC loss, dropping them to 11-13 overall and 3-8 in conference play.
Mississippi State
Ole Miss continued its losing streak against Mississippi State on Valentine’s Day. A 50-point second half saw them make a comeback effort, but they still lost by 12.
“Our home crowd was great and I apologize to whoever came to the game today,” Beard said. “Super appreciative of our crowd and our student body. From my vantage point, it seemed like the fans were trying to keep us in this game.”
Ole Miss forced a few turnovers to start the game and finally capitalized with an Eduardo Klafke 3-pointer. Storr had a great hustle play to save a ball going out of bounds but Ole Miss failed to convert on the ensuing possession.
They started the game 1-of-6 from the field and 1-of-2 on 3-point attempts while the Bulldogs were 4-of-5 from the field and 2-of-3 on 3-pointers before the first commercial break.
Ole Miss went nearly five minutes without scoring until Malik Dia hit an and-one to cut the lead to 13-6.
The Rebels created plenty of scoring opportunities off of turnovers, but the offensive side of the floor just could not keep up.
Storr had a great defensive deflection and ran down the court on a fastbreak for the score and got the Rebels within eight with about five minutes left in the half. This contributed to a quick 5-0 Ole Miss scoring run.
The first half ended with the Rebels down 47-28. Ole Miss was outrebounded 23-14, outshot by almost 30% from the field and only went to the line three times. Despite playing the most minutes on the team, Ilias Kamardine only shot the ball twice in his 17 minutes of play.
Storr led the scoring for the Rebels with 12, but Mississippi State’s Josh Hubbard had 16 points with only two missed shots.
The lack of rebounds meant Ole Miss was dominated in the paint and that showed in the scoring. Mississippi State had 22 points in the paint while Ole Miss had a measly six. The Rebels never led in the first.
The Rebels needed to start the second half strong to work away at the 19-point deficit. They found some success, with a posterizing dunk by Dia that cut the lead to only 15 points.
Unfortunately, the success did not last long. Mississippi State continued to hold a double digit possession lead deep into the second half.
Both teams started to light up the scoreboard with 11 combined points scored in quick succession. Despite this, the Bulldogs kept an 18-point lead and the Rebels seemed to have no answer offensively or defensively.
The Ole Miss crowd did not give up despite facing a double digit deficit. The fans continued to impact the game, especially during two free throw attempts by Jamarion Davis-Fleming, both of which he missed right as the crowd noise resurged.
A dunk by James Scott soon after also increased the crowd fervor. However, Mississippi State remained unfazed and continued their scoring dominance.
Dia started to be the engine for the Rebel offense, but could not combat the offensive firepower that Hubbard and the Bulldogs were sustaining. Dia finished with 32 points, 24 of which came in the second.
This loss boils down to one thing: Players need to hit their shots throughout the entire game. Ole Miss created more turnovers, had a better free throw percentage, but lost because they simply could not shoot well in the first half.
In the first and second half, Mississippi State scored 47 and 43 points, respectively, but Ole Miss only scored 28 points and 50 points. They started to come back in the second, but it was too little too late.
It is also difficult for a team to win when their top two scorers put up 32 and 21 points, but the rest of the team only combines for 25 points. Kamardine particularly was not shooting the ball at all in this game. He had zero points in the first and ended with only five.
“Statistically Dia and AJ played well on the stat sheet, but we were missing our third and fourth guy,” Beard said.
What’s next?
Ole Miss is back in action this Wednesday at 6 p.m. against Texas A&M in College Station, Texas. SEC Network will broadcast the game.
