This year’s Ole Miss men’s basketball team’s fortune could be summarized by the last sequence of the regular-season finale. In the waning seconds of regulation, the Rebels had an opportunity to take a late lead with a go-ahead shot and put South Carolina in limbo. Instead, Ole Miss guard Kezza Giffa turned the ball over with five seconds on the clock, and star Gamecock guard Meechie Johnson drained a triple at the buzzer to lift his team to a 64-61 victory.
South Carolina (13-18, 4-14 SEC) led Saturday’s game for more than 35 minutes, with Johnson’s 13 second-half points and game-winning shot helping Lamont Paris’ crew survive on the road. The Gamecocks had a tough 2025-26 campaign but found a way to sweep Mississippi’s three major programs — defeating Southern Miss in November, Mississippi State two Saturdays ago, and now Ole Miss.
The Rebels (12-19, 4-14 SEC) were led by Malik Dia’s 22 points as AJ Storr had a complementary 13 points. Ole Miss finished the regular season winning just one of its last 13 games.
South Carolina took a 20-10 advantage in the first 11 minutes of the opening frame. A bevvy of successful 3-point looks aided the visitors. The Rebels went on a 10-2 run, with Dia scoring eight of his team’s points, to cut the deficit to two points at the 6:21 mark. Both teams sparred the rest of the way. A late make by Johnson, who only had four points in the half, put the Gamecocks up 34-28 at the midway break.
Johnson opened the second half with a 3-pointer to extend South Carolina’s buffer. But Ole Miss stormed back, going on a 12-0 run while taking advantage of a five-minute Gamecock scoring drought to take its first lead of the contest. South Carolina promptly rebutted, claiming a 45-40 lead with 11:53 on the clock.
From there, efforts by Chris Beard’s Rebels to come back would be valiant but not enough to walk away with the team’s first home victory since a Jan. 10 win over Missouri. Ole Miss trailed 61-55 at the 3:10 mark, and knotted things up 61-61 with a minute left in regulation. As has been the case all year, however, the red and blue were immune to putting a game away.
3-point shooting was the greatest difference between the two teams, and largely what contributed to a South Carolina win. The Gamecocks had 27 points from deep, compared to just three for Ole Miss. The Rebels shot better overall and were more efficient at the free-throw line, but the lack of a presence from behind the arc was too consequential to overcome.
Next up for Ole Miss is the SEC Tournament. The Rebels will be the No. 15 seed and will take on the yet-to-be-determined No. 10 seed in Nashville on Wednesday at 6 p.m. CT. Ole Miss will have to win the conference title to have any shot at an NCAA Tournament appearance.
