Ole Miss men’s basketball gave itself a chance in the final minutes at Rupp Arena before a late flurry by the Wildcats ended its chance for an upset in a 72-63 final.
With a 62-60 score and just over a minute to play, Ole Miss (11-9, 3-4 SEC) looked to be cooking up some road magic yet again in Lexington, but Kentucky (14-6, 5-2 SEC) used a 6-0 run from there to put away the game. It is the fifth straight win for the suddenly competent Wildcats who had not put together a great non-conference resume
and stumbled out of the gate in SEC play.
The tale is similar to Ole Miss as the Rebels were sitting at 8-7 overall not that long ago before putting together a three game win streak to give itself life again. Since then, Chris Beard’s squad is 0-2, and the season could start to spiral without some kind of offensive spark.
The defensive effort on Saturday with an 10 a.m. tip was about as good as any fan could have hoped for as Ole Miss held Kentucky to only 36 percent from the field. The big problem however is the Rebels shot only 32 percent from the field to keep itself from pulling off a road win.
Zach Day saw more time on the court, and while his six points weren’t a gamechanger, his defensive effort showed why he has earned more minutes. The big shocker on Saturday was the play of Ilias Kamardine who scored only three points on 1/11 shooting, which is a far cry from his average of 11 points per game on 44 percent shooting.
AJ Storr led the way for Ole Miss with 20 points in his sixth straight game with 10 or more points. The transfer from Kansas has clearly found another gear in SEC play and has led the way, but he just didn’t have enough help other than Malik Dia who chipped in 16 points mostly in the paint.
The Rebels now have a week to prepare for top 25 Vanderbilt who will visit Oxford on Jan. 31. Then a two game road swing against Tennessee and Texas will cap off the first half of SEC play for Ole Miss. There has to be a win somewhere in the next three games to find some momentum anywhere for the final stretch of conference play. Sitting at 3-7 in early February in the SEC seems likely right now – yuck.
