Ole Miss stole defeat from the jaws of victory on Wednesday night in front of the second-largest crowd the SJB Pavilion had ever welcomed.
The Rebels (15-4, 4-2 SEC) led for more than 39 minutes of Wednesday night’s matchup with Texas A&M (15-4, 4-2 SEC), but a three-pointer by Manny Obaseki in the waning seconds of the game propelled the Aggies to a road victory.
Chris Beard’s crew had an eight-point advantage with roughly two minutes left in the conference battle, but a series of turnovers and a missed front end of a one-and-one opportunity at the free-throw line kept the back door open for the visiting team to successfully come out on top.
Game Recap
Matthew Murrell opened things up with a triple to get the crowd going early. A pair of deep shots from Jaylen Murray and Sean Pedulla gave the Rebels a 15-7 lead with 12:04 left in the half. Long-range shots continued to fall for Ole Miss, with Pedulla, Davon Barnes, and Juju Murray aiding in the effort to put the home team up 21-10 midway through the first half.
A collection of Texas A&M players made four triples and a pair of jumpers to eat into the Aggies’ deficit. Pedulla had a successful jumper to hand Ole Miss a 33-26 lead in what was a half defined by hard-nosed defense.
At the intermission, the Rebels had forced 10 Texas A&M turnovers and had nine points off of those giveaways. The Aggies, who rank No. 1 in offensive rebounding, only had four more boards. But that changed in the final 20 minutes.
Malik Dia, after a lackluster showing in Starkville on Saturday, scored the first six points for Ole Miss in the second half and the Rebels went ahead by 11 at the 17 minute mark. Then a series of scoring droughts by the red and blue paved the path for the Aggies to come back.
Zhuric Phelps and Pharrell Payne led Texas A&M on a 10-1 run over a six-minute span, cutting the Rebels’ lead to one point. Pedulla buried a triple and a jumper on ensuing drives to put Ole Miss back up by six.
From there, the Aggies continued to hit shots, but Ole Miss clutched up, with Jaemyn Brakefield emerging as a veteran leader in the process. The Jackson native was successful from behind the arc and completed a three-point play, allowing the Rebels to be ahead 60-52 as the clock neared its expiration.
And then it all went wrong for the home team. In the final two minutes of action, Ole Miss had a dunk blocked, turned the ball over three times, and missed the front end of a one-and-one. Obasaki nailed the heroic triple with 13 seconds on the clock.
Brakedield’s jumper was unsuccessful and the Rebels were unable to corral the offensive rebound and get a shot up as the buzzer sounded.
Impact Players
Pedulla’s 16 points were a game high for both teams. The Virginia Tech transfer shot 50% from the floor, with four triples complimenting his stat sheet. Dia, Murray and Brakefield had double digits on the scoreboard. Brakefield had a team-best eight rebounds.
Obaseki finished with 12 points, with the game-winning three-pointer serving as the biggest play of the night. Phelps also shined for the Aggies all night and ended the one-point win with 14 on the scoreboard, despite going a staggering 0-5 from behind the arc.
Deciding Factor
The rebounding disparity was the glaring difference between the two teams. Texas A&M hauled in 48 boards compared to Ole Miss’ 31. The Rebels made up for the disparity by forcing 20 turnovers and scoring 14 points off of the Aggies’ miscues.
A ruckus home crowd also played to the Rebels’ advantage, and while the 10,008 in attendance were certainly effective, their collective efforts were not enough to disrupt a well-coached club from closing things out.
While Ole Miss held Wade Taylor IV at bay all night, holding the standout veteran to a mere four points in the contest, Murrell was also ineffective on the floor offensively, hitting just one of nine shots.
A myriad of Rebels stepped up to the plate until the final minutes of the outing and Obaseki’s heroics were the ultimate difference in the thriller.
Coach’s Comments
Beard said his team was “hurting” after falling at home, where defeat had not occurred this season until tonight, by just a point. He was confident about the game plan going into the contest and felt like his group was equipped to walk away victorious, but final few minutes were too catastrophic to overcome.
“I thought we did everything we needed to do to win that one,” Beard said. “I thought we deserved to win the game if we finished it off, but we didn’t tonight.”
The second-year Rebel frontman credited Texas A&M for making big plays in crunch time, but contended that Ole Miss would have won if the team did not melt down with the game on the line.
“The game is basically mathematically over if we just make some routine plays,” Beard “There’s a lot to learn from this.”
Next Up
Ole Miss will look to get back in the win column on Saturday against Missouri on the road. Tip-off from Columbia is scheduled for 5 p.m. CT. The game will be aired on the SEC Network and participating SuperTalk Mississippi stations.
