NASHVILLE — Ole Miss needed something to go its way up a possession with less than 40 seconds left, but Matthew Murrell saw his three-point attempt rim out.
Not even 20 seconds previous, South Carolina cut the lead to 64-61 with a three-pointer of its own from Gregory Jackson II.
Now, all the Gamecocks needed to do was haul in the rebound and make some magic happen the other way. In their way, however, was Rebels sophomore guard James White, who grabbed their 13th offensive board of the game.
Momentum looked to potentially favor the Gamecocks late, but Ole Miss, fighting through numerous South Carolina runs, hung on as White hit a dagger midrange jumper, helping the Rebs advance to the second round of the SEC tournament with a 67-61 win on Wednesday.
“It’s something we drew up in the huddle,” Ole Miss forward Jameyn Brakefield said. “James is somebody that we trust with the ball in his hands and we knew he was going to make the play from the huddle.”
Up until that point, the Rebels (12-20) had gone nearly four minutes without a made field goal, allowing South Carolina to cut into what became as big as a nine-point lead with 3:21 left.
Both teams battled in the first half, trading runs, the biggest of which an 8-3 Ole Miss run to stretch the lead out to 28-22, but led just 30-29 at half.
Shooting struggles plagued both teams early on, but balanced scoring and second-chance opportunities kept the Rebs afloat. Ole Miss ended up with 17 second-chance points in the win as its offensive rebounding came up big.
For as much as White’s dagger late made the ultimate difference in the end, Wednesday night was the Amaree Abram show as the freshman broke out with a 20-point night, shooting 7-of-11 from the field and 5-of-8 from beyond the arc.
“The last game we played, he didn’t play any in the second half,” Ole Miss head coach Win Case said. “He just seemed out of it. We met a day or so ago and just talked about every single thing and going forward, what he needs to do for this team. We know that he can put the ball in the basket and that’s what you saw tonight.”
Abram capped off a big 15-4 Ole Miss run after being down 46-44 in the second half, knocking down two-straight threes, the latter of which forcing the hand of South Carolina head coach Lamont Harris to call a timeout down 59-50.
Having lost six of its last seven games coming in, three-point shooting was a consistent talking point for Ole Miss as it had been all season.
However, Wednesday night was a different story as the Rebs heated up in the second half, shooting 55.9 percent (5-of-9) from three, finishing 9-of-22 (40.9 percent) from the perimeter in the win.
A team that was shooting just 29.7 percent from beyond the arc up to that point saw one of its biggest weaknesses turn into a key strength.
“[Ole Miss] continues to encourage us and those tough losses all during the course of the year, they kept patting us on the back,” Case said. “That tide is going to turn. When you get to that SEC tournament, you guys are going to be ready to play and that’s exactly what’s happening right now.”
Similarities from the first two meetings between the Gamecocks and Rebels popped up on Wednesday, notably Ole Miss leading at the half, something that happened during both regular season games.
This time, the Rebs grabbed hold of the game, rattled off some runs, and made big shots late to propel themselves to a second round matchup with No. 5 seeded Tennessee, a team that they nearly knocked off in late December.
“We came in here with a clean slate,” Brakefield said. “We knew it was going to be a new season. The past is the past, so we came here 0-0…Knowing we played them to the wire in December, we just know we’re going to piggyback off how we played them, watch the film and follow the gameplan.”
Ole Miss and Tennessee square off at 2:30 p.m. Thursday.
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