Ole Miss men’s basketball falls to Auburn, 91-77, in Rebels’ first home loss of season
OXFORD, Miss. – Ole Miss dropped its first home game of the year after a tough second half that saw Auburn come from behind to prevail 91-77 over the Rebels.
Final from Oxford. pic.twitter.com/VBF4CEmJeJ
— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) February 4, 2024
First half
Coming off a historic night earlier this week with a record-setting crowd, the Rebels got off to a hot start against the Tigers. Jaylen ‘JuJu’ Murray and Allen Flanigan drained back-to-back triples to start this one as Ole Miss jumped on Auburn quickly.
Before tipoff, it was announced that Rebel center Jamarion Sharp would be sidelined due to illness. That meant Moussa Cisse would have a much bigger workload, and the senior looked ready to go after this alley-oop slam.
Fast Start 🔥
We lead 16-11 at the first media timeout.#HottyToddy x #BuildTheCulture pic.twitter.com/14Xcjb4Wco
— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) February 3, 2024
Coach Beard talked about missing Sharp in tonight’s loss.
“Yeah we obviously missed him tonight…again it’s not an excuse, Auburn beats us tonight no matter who we have, playing the way they played in the second half…But Books (Sharp) wasn’t able to go tonight because of illness, not injury.”
~ Beard on Sharp’s absence
After the fast start by Ole Miss, the Tigers began to gain some momentum. Auburn cut the lead to 5 at about the midway mark; however, Brandon Murray had an answer. The junior drained a step-back three to extend the Rebel lead to 25-17.
Step-back, contested 3️⃣ 😮💨@Bmurrayyyy | #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/70peJycg9e
— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) February 3, 2024
Just when it looked like the Tigers were closing in on the Ole Miss lead, Matthew Murrell came up with a steal, taking it coast-to-coast for a ‘thunderous’ jam that got the crowd on its feet. Ole Miss then proceeded to take its largest lead of the game, leading 34-22 with under 7 minutes to go in the half.
TAKEOFF 🛫@matt_murre11 | #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/oSJIbX9uzg
— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) February 3, 2024
Despite not having Sharp tonight, the Rebels were very aggressive defensively in the first half. Jaemyn Brakefield played a huge part in that as he had a pair of blocks at the break, including this one that had ‘a little extra on it’.
4️⃣’s House 🏠@Jaemyn1 | #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/l5hBb8cTzh
— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) February 3, 2024
The Tigers were able to cut the lead to single digits in the final seconds of the first half. Ole Miss did not trail at any point in the first half, taking a 44-35 lead into the break.
Murrell led the way for Ole Miss with 14 points and Brandon Murray was not far behind with 8 of his own.
Second Half
Coming out of the locker room, it was clear that Auburn made some adjustments. The Tigers started the last half of play on a 10-4 run, eventually tying things up at 50 before then taking their first lead of the game after making two free throws.
During his postgame, Coach Beard commented on the turn of events.
“I thought the guys pressed a little bit. When you’re up 9, we take their first couple of shots, and that’s when championship teams gotta buckle down. You can’t let the last 4 minutes affect the next 4 minutes, and I thought we did that.I didn’t think that was Ole Miss Basketball out there tonight for a lot of a lot of segments. We just gotta play a lot better, but again, not up here telling you it was all about us. Auburn played great tonight.”
~ Beard on Auburn’s fast second half start
It seemed like Auburn had full control of the game from the start of the second half. Just when the Tigers were looking to extend their first lead, Flanigan came up big for
Flan 💪@Allen_Flanigan2 | #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/PIagvWvLBR
— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) February 4, 2024
But over the next 5 minutes, the Rebels were battling to stay in this one as the shots just were not falling on their end. Eventually the Tigers took a 73-67 lead, which was their largest of the night up that point.
After a 2-point first half, Auburn forward Johni Broome took over the paint with the absence of the 7-footer Sharp. Broome finished with 15 points and 9 boards, and Coach Beard spoke about the Auburn star during the postgame.
“He played like a veteran. You can tell he wasn’t going to let his first half affect his second half, which is a common trait of a good player, a future pro…he is one of the better players in the SEC for a reason. I could say that about all their guys.”
~ Beard on Johni Broome’s second half performance
With 4 minutes to go, Ole Miss cut the Auburn lead to 10 as they looked to make one last run. However, Auburn did not let up, scoring 11 more points to ultimately put the Rebels away.
Ole Miss was outscored 56-33 in the second half after leading the game heading into halftime.
Cisse, Brakefield and Murrell all had double-digits for the Rebels, and Allen Flanigan led the way with 20 points.
“Right back to the process. It doesn’t change when you win, when you run out of time…We got beat you know, right back to the process. It’s a long season, we just gotta get back to practice tomorrow and address it.”
~ Beard on how he plans to handle the loss
Up Next
The Rebels will hit the road for the next matchup when they take on the South Carolina Gamecocks next Tuesday, February 6th. Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 CT on the SEC Network.
Kameron Wicker
Kam is a senior at Ole Miss, currently pursuing a degree in Journalism. Even though he's from Delhi, Louisiana, that didn't stop Kam from growing up a diehard Ole Miss fan. He's a sports guru who watches and follows all sports at all times. He lettered four years in football and baseball in high school and is an avid Saints, Pelicans, and Astros fan. In his free time, you can find him watching sports or at the rec participating in them.
