No. 21 Ole Miss forced 21 turnovers Tuesday night at No. 4 Alabama, and the Rebels upset the Crimson Tide 74-64 in Tuscaloosa. With the victory, the Rebels (15-2, 4-0 SEC) improved to 4-48 all-time against top-four opponents. It is the first top-five road win in program history.
Junior forward Malik Dia finished with a game-high 23 points and 19 rebounds. Alabama entered the game averaging a Division I-best 91.1 points per game.
“We came here to build a program that can compete with teams like this. And, tonight, we did obviously more than compete,” Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard said. “ … (Alabama was) in the Final Four for a reason last year, and they’re certainly, in my opinion, one of the best teams in college basketball. Maybe it’s time to talk a little bit about Ole Miss. It’s early, I don’t say that in a self-promoting way – I’ve been here before – but I do think that my job is to take up from our team a little bit.
“ … Two really good teams playing tonight, and I think most of the national scene didn’t give Ole Miss much of a chance. And our players believed that we could be successful in this game, and that’s what we did.”
Despite missing six of their first seven shots Tuesday, the Rebels jumped out to a 10-6 lead behind a defensive effort that forced seven turnovers in the first six minutes of the game. A 9-0 run from the Crimson Tide (14-3, 3-1) ensued, though the Rebels were able to tie the game at 23 with just over seven minutes left in the first half. A 3-pointer by Aden Holloway with seven seconds left in the first gave Alabama a 36-32 halftime lead.
The Rebels scored the first four points of the second half and took a one-point lead on a 3-pointer from senior guard Jaylen Murray less than five minutes into the period. A 3-pointer from senior guard Sean Pedulla with 11:26 left in the second put Ole Miss up by five. Another 3-pointer from Pedulla with 2:33 left gave the Rebels a 12-point lead.
The Crimson Tide used a 6-0 run to cut the lead in half, but Murray and senior forward Jaemyn Brakefield combined to make eight straight free throws to close out the game.
“We’ve been working on this defense since the summer,” Dia said. “This is definitely not an easy defense, (Beard) coaches us hard each and every day to get it right.”
Ole Miss plays at No. 15 Mississippi State on Saturday at 5 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.
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