Ole Miss had a chance to even the season series against the Mississippi State Bulldogs. For most of the game, it looked like the Rebs would pull off the upset, but the Bulldogs rallied back in overtime to complete the series sweep.
Mississippi State was favored to win on the road versus Ole Miss, seeing as the last time they played, State won by 10 points, but the Rebels used that underdog status to fuel a fairly impressive upset effort.
Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans could not have drawn up a better start to this ball game if he had tried. The Bulldogs jumped out to an early 13-4 lead as their tremendous defense led to easy offense. However, instead of laying down, Ole Miss fought from behind the entire half until the halftime score was 33-32 in favor of the Rebels.
The rest of the game saw these teams trade shots and stops, and after a layup from Myles Burns put Ole Miss up by two points with 37 seconds remaining in the game, Mississippi State’s Tolu Smith put in a layup of his own to send the game to overtime.
In overtime, the Bulldogs showed why they are a bubble March Madness team. Mississippi State started overtime on a 5-0 run, which quickly took the energy out of the SJB Pavilion. After that, State maintained at least a three-point lead until the game ended.
Mississippi State won 69-61 after Ole Miss started fouling at the end of overtime.
Jaemyn Brakefield led the Rebs with 30 points, while Matthew Murrell and Burns chipped in 15 and 10 points, respectively.
There are many things that Rebel fans can look at and attribute this loss to. Missing crucial free throws, shooting less than 14% from three-point range or allowing the Mississippi State bigs to dominate all game are just a few examples. Sure, those things hurt Ole Miss, but they are not the sole reason the Rebels lost.
It can sound cliche to say that Mississippi State won this game rather than that Ole Miss lost, but it is very accurate in this situation.
Ole Miss had Mississippi State on the ropes for the majority of the second half. There was a point in the game where the Rebels forced three-straight turnovers, which forced a Bulldog timeout. The stars were aligning for Ole Miss to win, but what separates the good teams from the great is their ability to close games.
Mississippi State had better-closing possessions, both offensively and defensively, than Ole Miss, and that was the difference in the game.
Next up for Ole Miss is the Auburn Tigers. This will be the second matchup between these two programs, with Auburn coming out on top 82-73 back in January. This game is on Wednesday, Feb. 22 at 8:00 p.m. CST inside the SJB Pavillion. The game can also be viewed on the SEC Network.
