Throughout the 2022-23 season, there haven’t been as many of those as Davis would have liked or, quite frankly, needed.

Ole Miss and Davis mutually parted ways Friday morning after five seasons. Davis went 74-79 and made the NCAA tournament his first season — he was also Southeastern Conference coach of the year that same year — but finished with losing records in three of five campaigns.

Davis wasn’t in the locker room Saturday night after Ole Miss (11-18, 3-13 SEC) celebrated an 82-69 win over LSU, snapping a four-game losing streak. But it was a happy locker room, to be sure. And it still had Davis’ fingerprints all over it.

Down by seven in the first half Saturday night against the Tigers, the Rebels outscored the Tigers 27-11 over the final 9:38 of the period, taking a nine-point lead into halftime in their 13-point win at SJB Pavilion under acting head coach Win Case, who will coach Ole Miss the remainder of the season.

Ole Miss — who entered the game shooting just under 42 percent from the field — shot 56 percent for the game. Junior forward Jaemyn Brakefield led Ole Miss with 23 points and 10 rebounds. Four Rebels finished in double-figure scoring.

A heart wrenching two days or so had finally found the happiest ending it could have.

“They were really, really happy. It was very emotional as well. I’m just so happy, so thankful that they finally, finally put two halves together,” Case said. “And Coach Davis always used to talk about it, happy locker rooms. And it was a very, very happy locker room tonight.”

Case has spent the last 14 years with Davis, a period that dates back to Davis’ dominant run at Middle Tennessee State. Sitting in front of a podium for the first time as a head coach of any sort since 2008, Case let his emotions pour out.

The last few days have been hard on everyone.

The team found out about Davis’ fate Friday morning like everyone else did — in a tweet from national sportswriters. The Rebels were scheduled to practice in the morning, senior forward Myles Burns said. That plan pivoted into a team meeting that no one wanted, or was ready, to have.

“I’ll tell you this. When he went in and met with the team — Coach Davis is one of these stoic guys, don’t really show his emotion, it’s not on his sleeve. But I can tell you this, there was not a dry eye in that locker room when he announced to them that he was not coming back,” Case said. “ … Tears in his eyes as well, and all the players. And I really, truly believe in my heart, of all the hard work that Coach Davis went through throughout this season, with this team, played a hand in us winning tonight. I truly believe that.”

A handful of rumored candidates are already beginning to emerge for the head coaching vacancy not even three days old, some with checkered pasts — former LSU head coach Will Wade and former Texas head coach Chris Beard are among the hottest names. But none of that mattered Saturday night, nor did the countless gut punches endured in the previous 36 hours.

For 40 minutes, the Rebels didn’t have to hear about the shortcomings of recent seasons, this season, or answer questions about futures they haven’t yet begun to contemplate. They just got to play basketball.

The Rebels played for two coaches Saturday — one still in the room and one still in their hearts.

“Any type of feeling of frustration we had, we were just able to lay it out on the floor. And we played with a lot more passion, because we felt we had something to play for,” Burns said. “I think, unfortunately, it takes certain things to give guys a little kick. And I think that was a wake-up call for us. It just gave us what we needed to push forward.”

Brakefield scored the first eight points of the game for Ole Miss, who used a 7-0 run spanning just over a minute to tie the game at 15 with 7:45 left in the half. A subsequent 10-0 run put Ole Miss up by as many as 11. Ole Miss made six of its last eight field goals to end the period.

LSU (13-16, 2-14 SEC) made just two of its 13 3-point tries in the first.

The Tigers scored the first five points of the second half, but again the Rebels got hot, hitting five straight from the field. The Rebels shot 62 percent from the field in the second half. LSU’s KJ Williams kept the Tigers in the game, however, scoring 18 of his game-high 29 in the second half.

But on Saturday, nothing was going to get in the Rebels’ way of a win. Ole Miss had come too close, too many times this season to let a game like this slip through their hands.

Emphatic dunks were followed by momentum-swinging 3-pointers —all derivative from a tough defense Davis always put above all else. They were playing the way they knew they needed to play from the start of the season.

Freshman guard Amaree Abram finished with 14 points, Burns scored 12, and junior guard Matthew Murrell scored 11.

“When we get down to ‘winning time,’ with about three or four minutes to go in the game, let’s go get this win. That’s all they kept talking about, after every timeout,” Case said. “ … These guys did all the talking.”

When the clock hit zero on Ole Miss’ first SEC home win of the season, fans gave the Rebels a standing ovation, something they haven’t gotten the chance to do much in 2023. Saturday night didn’t save the Rebels’ season. Ole Miss didn’t win enough games, Case said, a fact that he, the players and Davis all know.

But, for a couple of hours, one win made things feel better. Given the last two days, what else could Burns and his teammates ask for?

“We were happy. We were happy to get the W, we were happy that played for each other. It felt very unselfish. We all attacked (Case) with water. I might have slipped, possibly,” Burns said with a smile that told the whole story. “But yeah, it was very happy.”

Ole Miss hosts Texas A&M at 8 p.m. Tuesday.