DAYTON, Ohio- The Rebels proved not only that they belong in the big dance, but that they actually could be a force to be reckoned with.The Ole Miss basketball team had presumably been on life support before they got the invite to the NCAA Tournament. They had lost 4 out of their last 5 games of the season, with that one win being over an NIT Alabama team that just fired their head coach after their atrocity of a season.
And as the story goes, the Rebels were well on their way to proving all their doubters right Tuesday night against BYU in the First Round of the tournament. The Cougars came out firing on all four cylinders, jumping out to an early double-digit lead, leading by 17 at the half. But the second half was all Rebels, as they came back quickly, scoring 50 points in the last 14 minutes of the game to pull out a victory, 94-90. Junior Stefan Moody led the way, dropping a team-high 26 points in the win.
Looks like the Rebels aren’t quite rolling over just yet. They move on to face a tough 6th-seeded Villanova squad on Thursday at 3:10 in Jacksonville.
