No. 15 seed Ole Miss led No. 7 seeded Georgia by as many as 23 points in the second half and survived a late Bulldogs rally in a 76-72 victory Thursday night in the second round of the SEC Tournament. With the win, the Rebels (14-19) advance to the tournament semifinals against No. 2 seed Alabama.

Ole Miss defeated No. 10 seed Texas in the first round Wednesday night.

Ole Miss led 55-32 with less than 13 minutes to play, but the Bulldogs (22-10) were able to cut the lead down to as few as two points. The Rebels also won the first meeting between the teams, a 97-95 overtime affair in Athens, Georgia.

Senior guard AJ Storr led Ole Miss with 19 points. Senior forward Malik Dia scored 17, while sophomore guard Travis Perry finished with 16. Ole Miss did not trail in the game.

Georgia entered the game as the third-highest scoring team in Division I at 90.4 points per game while averaging just under 10 3-pointers per game. But for the second night in a row, the Rebels stymied a potent offense in the first 20 minutes. The Bulldogs missed six of their first eight shots, went 7 of 26 from the field and made just a single 3-pointer in the first half. A 3-pointer from Perry capped off an 8-0 run that saw the Rebels take an 11-point lead with just over five minutes remaining in the half. A floater as time expired by Storr, who led Ole Miss with 11 first-half points, put the Rebels ahead 34-20 at halftime.

Ole Miss scored 11 points off 10 Georgia turnovers in the first.

Five consecutive points from Dia put the Rebels ahead by 21 with 16:37 to play in the second half. Dia scored 10 of his 17 points in the second half. A 22-2 Bulldogs run – occurring due in no small part to four Ole Miss turnovers in less than five minutes – trimmed the Rebels’ lead down to three with just over eight minutes remaining. The lead got down to as few as two points, but Ole Miss responded with big shots in the game’s late moments, including a Storr jumper with less than a minute remaining that brought the lead back up to seven.

Storr missed the front end of a one-and-one with 13 seconds to play, leading to a Georgia dunk on the other end that made it a 73-71 game. Senior guard Kezza Giffa made one of his two free throws on the next possession, and the Bulldogs were unable to convert a subsequent intentionally missed free throw into the tying basket.