In a back-and-forth fight, a late Ole Miss comeback attempt fell short as they dropped a 75-74 game at the Acrisure Series Tournament in Palm Springs, California on Wednesday Night.
Ole Miss (5-2) managed to get things started with an electric dunk off an alley-oop from Kezza Giffa to Malik Dia on the Rebels’ first offensive possession.
Dia’s opening dunk managed to jump-start the Rebels’ offense, as they maintained their lead until the 8:34 mark. Utah’s (6-2) Don McHenry broke away for a fastbreak layup to put the Utes up 19-17. They would maintain the lead until Patton Pinkins hit a three-pointer at the 5:46 mark to knot the game at 25.
However, the Utes regained control after Terrence Brown was fouled by Pinkins in the act of shooting, making both free throws to put them back up 27-25. They headed into halftime maintaining their lead 42-34.
The Rebels managed to cut the lead back down to six, 62-56, with under nine minutes to play in the second frame. It became a one-possession game at 65-62 after a made second-chance layup by Dia with 6:19 left to play.
Ilias Kamardine would tie the game at 67 after making a three-pointer at the 3:54 mark. The Rebels took the lead 69-67, for the first time since the first half, on their next offensive possession on another Kamardine layup.
With less than 1:30 to play, Utah would retake the lead 73-72 off a three by Mchenry. But Kamardine would once again score for the Rebels on a jumper inside the paint to put the Rebels up 74-73 with only 57 seconds remaining.
The game came down to a last-ditch effort by the Utes with nine seconds remaining. Brown managed to push the ball full court, where he got fouled on an attempted layup with four seconds left on the clock.
Brown sank both free throws to put the Utes up one before the Rebels had a chance to get a shot off, but were unable to as the clock expired.
Ole Miss returns to action Tuesday at 8 p.m. in a matchup against an Atlantic Coast Conference foe in Miami for the ACC/SEC Challenge in the SJB Pavilion on the SEC Network.
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