WHAT THEY SAID: Coach Chris Beard and Dre Davis talk about Rebels’ last-second, 72-70 win over LSU

BATON ROUGE — Ole Miss trailed LSU by 10 points with 2:52 remaining, Saturday in Baton Rouge, but the No. 25 Rebels (18-6, 7-4 SEC) orchestrated a comeback to defeat the Tigers (12-11, 1-9 SEC) 72-70 at the buzzer. Dre Davis scored a season-high 22 points including the game winning tip in with 0.1 seconds on the clock.

After the game, head coach Chris Beard and guard Dre Davis met with media to discuss the Rebels’ win. Here’s everything they said:

Coach Beard’s Opening Statement

We’ve got a lot of respect for LSU basketball and the coach. They gave us all we could handle tonight, obviously, all the way to the buzzer. I thought they were the most aggressive team for most of the game, really hard to guard tonight. Couldn’t get a stop for the most of the game. So we knew we had to really take care of the ball and try to just score with them for a while. So I think the difference in the game was we only had one turnover in the second half and five for the game, and that gave our offense a chance to kind of have our defense’s back when we were struggling. Late in the game, I thought our guys showed a lot of poise just giving ourselves a chance. Obviously had some fortune during that time, but just proud of the win on a night where we didn’t play our best. To get an SEC road win, speaks a lot about our team. And make sure the narrative isn’t that we didn’t play our best for any other reason than LSU. They they were aggressive. Thought they played defensively a little bit different than they have up to this point in the season, so there’s a lot of changes out there. Took us a long time to adjust, so I wish coach and the team the best of luck here down the stretch.

Question: I mean Dre, this was by far the biggest comeback win, buzzer beater, first of the season. You’re one of the veterans on a team filled with guys that have played a ton of basketball. What do you think it speaks to the mindset of this team — with just under four minutes to the game, you guys had your largest deficit, but you just kept picking and not giving up?

Dre Davis: I feel like we’ve been in positions like this a lot throughout the year, so I think it just shows character just being able to learn from those past games and experiences and be able to. take those experiences to use that to help us get the win tonight. So obviously you want to play better, not be in that position. But at the end of the day, getting the win is the most important thing and we pulled it out. So good job.

Question: Dre — just could you speak on this being one of your bigger performances of the night? 22 points, and kind of willing your team on the scoreboard at certain parts of the second half?

Dre: Just trying to do anything I can to help my team get a win. I mean, that’s pretty much all it is.

Question: I was just gonna ask about the the the front court of LSU with their athleticism. Just y’all as an offense handling that and figuring it out as the game went on.

Dre: I think it was more so just the pressure. Their defensive pressure was at an all-time high. I feel like they came out amped up. And, I think it just took us a while to adjust to it. And I feel like once we adjusted to it, I feel like we kind of started throwing our punches in there and finally got in a little rhythm, so.

Questions for Coach Beard

Question: You said that LSU was the most physical team for the most part tonight or for the majority of the game. What specifically made it so difficult for their physicality to kind of be overcome tonight?

Coach Beard: Yeah, I don’t disagree with physical. I said aggressive, but maybe both. They were really getting out in the passing lanes in the first half defensively. I don’t want to speak for coach, but it felt like they were playing a little bit different than they have in the past. And again, it took us some time to adjust.

Question: Your team had its largest deficit of the night with just under four minutes remaining. Then you go on that 15 to 2 to two run to close it out. What was going through your mind, though, at that time when LSU took its largest lead and you’re calling that time out?

Coach Beard: Yeah, just we call that ‘play it to the bone’ in our program. We tell the guys at the start of the season, you’re going to have to win a couple of courageous late, late game comebacks to have the kind of season you want to have. So when you’re in these positions, you just want to give yourself a chance every night. And so internally, I thought our guys had a lot of poise. Um, thought we used our timeouts well and just kind of stayed on the same page exactly what we were trying to do. Down nine with about two minutes left, it’s not really time to look up at the scoreboard. It’s just time to make sure that all five players are on the same page, possession by possession, exactly what we’re trying to do. We gave some double and triple assignments during that time because we didn’t have another timeout. So we’re talking about what we want to get done on defense and then what we want to get done on offense and then maybe the next defensive possession. So can’t do that with a lot of teams. But we’re experienced. We got older guys, so I thought the guys did a good job. You know, kind of digesting the information that we were trying to get done in winning time.

Question: From what can you can share with us, so what did you did you draw up on that last play of the game or the last possession of the game?

Coach Beard: Yeah, we always talk about, you know, we got two chances here. We can win the game with the shot, or we can win the game with the offensive rebound. We also spent a lot of time talking about time. You don’t want to shoot it too early, especially against LSU with their talented guards. You can get off a really good one on one shots. And so, that’s what I can say about that.

Question: In the second half, Daimian Collins picked up four fouls. Was it, I guess intentional to go at him, try to get him in foul trouble?

Coach Beard: Yeah. He’s a super player. I’ve been coaching a while, and he’s as athletic as any guy I can remember coaching or coaching against. He can just do things that other guys can’t do. Um, and so we did have an aggressive game plan. We didn’t want to fear his shot blocking. But you got to play with some intelligence too. He’s a guy that can really alter the game with his length and athleticism. He’s a really good player.