OXFORD — The Ole Miss men’s basketball team used a 28-0 run early in the second half to seize the momentum en route to a 90-70 victory against Chattanooga at The Pavilion at Ole Miss.
Trailing by six points with less than 17 minutes to go, the Rebels (8-2) held the Mocs (5-7) scoreless for nearly seven minutes in the run to earn their fifth consecutive victory.
“Our defense more than anything (got going),” Ole Miss coach Kermit Davis said of the run. “Breein Tyree got going. He can do that some days in practice. He’s a real confident offensive player, but really it was just points off turnovers. We got our hands on a bunch of loose balls, blocked shots, they got sped up and then the game in transition, and we really started executing. We came out of a timeout, our guys really executed a back door play to Devontae Shuler. He laid it in, got fouled and that was the big play for our team. There are a lot of things that have to go right, but the biggest thing during a 28-0 run is the defensive end and that’s what happened.”
Ole Miss also shot better than 50 percent for the fifth game in a row, setting a new record in The Pavilion at Ole Miss with a 61.5-percent (32-for-52) clip. Terence Davis and Tyree had 20 apiece. Davis also added team highs in assists (seven) and rebounds (five), while Tyree sparked the run with 18 of his 20 points in the second half. The junior guard was limited to eight minutes in the first half due to foul trouble, but he brought a spark coming out of the locker room.
Bruce Stevens recorded 15 points off the bench on 6-for-7 shooting. Junior center Dominik Olejniczak scored seven points and had a team-high three steals and two blocked shots.
David Jean-Baptiste led Chattanooga with 15 points. The Mocs were 11-for-21 (52.4 percent) from 3-point range.
Ole Miss led 33-21 with 5 minutes, 23 seconds remaining in the opening half. The Mocs used an 18-4 run to take a 39-37 lead at halftime. Chattanooga hit four 3-pointers in that span, including a triple from Jerry Johnson Jr. right before the buzzer. Both teams shot 59 percent in the first half.
The second half started off as a 3-point contest. Chattanooga drilled a pair from long range to build a six-point advantage before the Rebels flipped the script with four threes of their own. Davis began the barrage with a contested three to slice the margin in half. After a rejection by Olejniczak, Tyree sank a transition 3-pointer from the wing to tie the game at 45. A steal by Olejniczak turned into another Tyree 3-pointer to give Ole Miss its first lead since late in the first half. After another stop, a 3-pointer by Shuler from the corner turned a six-point deficit into a six-point advantage 51-45 and forced the Mocs to call a timeout.
The Rebels kept the Mocs scoreless for 6:38 to finish off the run and build a 22-point lead.
“I had a sneaky feeling,” Davis said. “I started watching Chattanooga on tape, and watching Lamont Paris’ team, they’ve really gotten much better over the last three or four games. We haven’t really been tested at home yet, exhibition or the first four games. It was just something I thought would happen, and it did. It was my first time as the coach at Ole Miss to get down in the second half at home and watch your fans and players respond, so to me that was a cool thing and I enjoyed it.”
Ole Miss will return to action at 7 p.m. Friday when it plays Middle Tennessee State, Davis’ former team, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. The game will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network’s Facebook page.
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 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.