Ole Miss makes winning plays down the stretch at Georgia, snapping 5-game skid
Feb. 7—It wasn't easy or without a bit of stress, but for the first time since Jan. 17, the Ole Miss men's basketball team is back in the win column.
The Rebels were locked in another tight game Tuesday night — this one in Athens, Georgia against the Bulldogs — in a matchup that featured 15 lead changes and 13 ties.
Leading by a point with less than 30 seconds play, junior forward Jaemyn Brakefield missed a jumper that was rebounded by senior forward Robert Allen, giving the Rebels a chance to run more clock and pad their lead with free throws. Junior guard Matt Murrell made 1 of 2 but got his own rebound and proceeded to make his final six free throws to seal a 78-74 win over the Bulldogs.
Brakefield finished with a career-high 24 points. Senior forward Myles Burns scored 20, and Murrell scored 14, hitting 9 of 11 from the free throw line.
Making plays has been a problem for Ole Miss (10-14, 2-9 SEC) over the last month and a half, a stretch that has seen a six-game losing streak and a five-game losing streak. But this time, Ole Miss and its veterans knew exactly what to do.
"I think the maturity level of all the guys, it was different than we've had all the way up this year," Burns, who won the NAIA national title last season at Loyola New Orleans, said. " ... I think tonight was just, the vibe felt different. Everybody was playing together, whenever somebody messed up, we didn't get on each other too hard. We gave each other a lot of positive reinforcement to have the next-play mentality. And that's what it takes, and we had that tonight.
"I don't know what happened, what got into everybody, but the maturity level was very high tonight, and I respect it a lot."
The Rebels led 17-14 midway through the first half behind six quick points from Burns. As was the case the first time the teams met in Oxford, Georgia (14-10, 4-7) guard Kario Oquendo proved to be a thorn in the Rebels' side, scoring 12 points in the first half and helping the Bulldogs to a five-point lead.
In the Bulldogs four-point win in Oxford, Oquendo scored the last 12 points of the game for Georgia and all 15 of his points in the second half.
Burns and the Rebels battled back, however, and took a 35-34 halftime lead on a late 3-pointer from Brakefield, who scored 14 points in the first.
The Bulldogs opened the second half on an 8-2 run and led by as many as six, but the Rebels again surged and tied the game at 51 on a dunk from senior forward Theo Akwuba.
Up one with a chance to create separation, Brakefield missed a shot, but the Rebels got a huge offensive rebound from Allen. Murrell split his free throws and got his own rebound, forcing Georgia to foul. Murrell then hit those free throws and made it a two-possession game.
A steal on a Rebels inbound pass led to a layup and-1 from Georgia's Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe, making it a one-point game again. Murrell calmly sank his next two free throws, and the Rebels opted to foul Georgia up three rather than let the Bulldogs shoot a 3-pointer.
Jailyn Ingram made his first free throw and purposely missed the second, and Murrell was in the right place at the right time and grabbed the crucial board before making his final two shots from the free throw line.
"At the end we got up three, we were going to foul up three, I thought we executed that well," head coach Kermit Davis said. "And then Matt made a really big rebound off the free throw. So, just a really good college basketball game and a much-needed win for the Rebels."
Ole Miss hosts South Carolina Saturday at noon. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network.
MICHAEL KATZ is the Ole Miss athletics reporter for the Daily Journal. Contact him at michael.katz@djournal.com.
