OXFORD — The Ole Miss men’s basketball team continued its string of impressive Southeastern Conference play thanks to something it’s not usually known for — defense.
Ole Miss won its fourth-straight game Wednesday night, beating Texas A&M 69-59 at Tad Smith Coliseum in a disjointed game that featured plenty of missed shots, turnovers, and empty possessions.
“It wasn’t the most aesthetically pleasing game at times, but these are the kinds of games you’ve got to win in early February,” Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said. “You’ve got to grind through them.”
Stefan Moody scored 19 points and M.J. Rhett added 11 for Ole Miss. The Rebels (15-7, 6-3 SEC) led for the entire second half, stretching their advantage to 12 points before the Aggies briefly made a run.
Texas A&M (15-6, 6-3) had its six-game winning streak snapped. It was the Aggies’ longest run of victories in conference play since they were part of the Big 12 Conference in 2009.
Alex Caruso and Tavario Miller led the Aggies with 13 points. Kourtney Roberson added 12.
Texas A&M’s Danuel House, who was named the SEC Player of the Week on Monday, had six points on 2-of-11 shooting from the field. The Aggies’ top three scorers — House, Jalen Jones and Caruso — combined to go 8 of 29 from the field.
“We just didn’t play very well,” Texas A&M coach Billy Kennedy said.
The Rebels — who came into the night leading the SEC in conference play with 75 points per game — won despite their own mediocre shooting night. They made 24 of 62 (38.7 percent) attempts from the field and 6 of 24 (25 percent) from 3-point range.
Sixteen turnovers hurt Texas A&M. Ole Miss had eight.
It was an important game for both teams, which are working to gain quality wins as the NCAA tournament bubble slowly develops. Texas A&M came into the game at No. 31 in the country in Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), while Ole Miss was No. 48, according to the NCAA’s rankings.
Ole Miss managed to take a 33-32 halftime lead despite missing its first 12 3-point attempts. Terence Smith made back-to-back 3-pointers late in the first half to break the streak and push the Rebels ahead.
After surviving the early shooting problems, Ole Miss jumped ahead in the second half. Rhett had three early buckets and Moody’s short jumper extended the Rebels’ lead to 50-38 with 13 minutes, 38 seconds remaining.
“We just stayed the course,” Rhett said. “We took the same shots we did in the first half. They just weren’t falling in the first half. But in the second half everything started rolling.”
Texas A&M was far from finished, cutting the Ole Miss advantage to 53-50 with eight minutes remaining. But the Aggies couldn’t string together enough quality offensive possessions to take the lead.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.