A swing in momentum in No. 16 Ole Miss’ favor late in the first half did not carry over into the last 20 minutes as the Rebels were dominated 87-70 at Memphis.
Colby Rogers had 28 points and PJ Haggerty scored 17 for the Tigers to avenge last year’s nail-biting showdown between the two programs. The win was also a breath of fresh air for the home team after dropping a double-digit contest to No. 19 Mississippi State one week prior.
Ole Miss looked outmatched early in the highly-anticipated finale of non-conference play. Former Rebel Moussa Cisse opened the game with a dunk to get the FedEx Forum crowd roaring. Things continued to go right for the home team. Led by a strong showing by Haggerty and Rogers, the Tigers posted a 17-6 lead in the first seven minutes of action.
The Rebels, on the other hand, struggled to find quality looks and were unable to connect on the open shots they took. Freshman Eduardo Klafke connected on a triple at the 12-minute mark, giving Chris Beard’s club a much-needed spark. But the flame was not ignited for long.
Over the next five minutes, Memphis built on its lead, posting a 27-14 advantage as the Tigers exploited their SEC foe in the paint. However, a Jaylen Murray three gave Ole Miss a boost of confidence the team had lacked all half. Shots then began to fall en masse for the Rebels and the Tigers’ lead quickly dwindled.
Senior forward Mikeal Brown-Jones was a perfect four-of-four from the free throw line in the final two minutes of the first half, marking the only points scored in the stretch. Ole Miss, once down by as many as 13 points, trailed 38-36 at the midway intermission.
Punctuated by an early 14-4 run, the second half belonged to Memphis. As the Tigers gelled offensively, things took an even worse turn for Ole Miss when Brown-Jones was ejected from the game with a little over 15 minutes remaining after landing a soft punch in the back of Cisse’s head. Cisse, arguably embellishing what had occurred, went to the ground to get the attention of the officials.
“That hurt. Mikeal [Brown-Jones] was our most physical player. He could matchup with their bigs the best,” Beard said after the game. “He was on the way to having a double-double night. He was going to be a big focal point of our second half gameplan.”
Though Ole Miss played much cleaner in the second half, turning the ball over five fewer times than the team had before the break, it was not enough to overcome a lack of scoring to counter an avalanche of buckets by the Tigers.
With around 10:16 left in action, Penny Hardaway’s team, leading by 11, began to lean on post play and its ability to get to the free throw line. Dain Dainja became a force down low for Memphis, and was essentially a guaranteed bucket that Ole Miss could not combat effectively.
The Rebels remained competitive for a stretch and saw flashes from role players, one being a five minute stretch in which Belmont transfer Malik Dia scored 11 of the team’s 14 points.
Sean Pedulla also bounced back from a rough start to the contest and displayed efficiency in the back-end of the contest. Freshman center Jon Bol saw action on the floor and was called on to aid in the tall task of rim protection against veteran Tiger bigs.
On the flip side, key rotational pieces in Dre Davis, Matthew Murrell, Jaemyn Brakefield, and Davon Barnes never got it going in the matchup. The group made a combined six shots on 29 attempts, largely keeping Ole Miss from ever posting a lead on Saturday.
Ole Miss had a trio of players eclipse double-digits on the scoreboard. Pedulla led the team with 13. Murray had 12 and Dia scored 11. Dainja and Cisse combined for 29 points on the other side. Cisse had a double-double with 11 boards complimenting his scoring outing.
“I’m a big fan of Moussa [Cisse]. When we got the Ole Miss job, he was the guy we wanted to come in and kind of start the recruiting class. He worked really hard in our program last year,” Beard said of his former player.
“I think Moussa’s one of the best players in college basketball when he knows who he is and he does all the things he can do well. That’s what I saw tonight … He’s a guy that I will always pull for. Once a player in our program, always a player in our program.”
Memphis converted on 48% of its shots while Ole Miss only connected on 36% of its attempts. The Tigers hit seven of 19 shots from behind the arc, whereas the Rebels made just seven of 28. Rebounding also played to Memphis’ advantage as the Tigers grabbed 11 more boards than their foe.
This was the first time Ole Miss won the turnover battle, but lost a game this year. The Rebels coughed the ball up two times less than their opponent. Memphis was better at earning free throw attempts. The Tigers had 10 more attempts from the charity stripe than Ole Miss.
Beard and company will begin an even tougher road next Saturday when the Rebels face Georgia at the SJB Pavilion. Tipoff is scheduled for 11 a.m. CT and the game will be broadcast on the SEC Network as well as participating SuperTalk Mississippi stations.
