Mississippi guard Jarvis Summers (32) looks for room past Charleston Southern guard Saah Nimley (5) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Oxford, Miss., Friday, Nov. 14, 2014. Charleston Southern won 66-65 in overtime. (Photo/Thomas Graning)
A put-back dunk with one tenth of a second left in overtime doomed the Rebels to a final score of 66-65 in overtime on Friday, leaving Ole Miss fans stunned as they dropped the home opener to Charleston Southern.
Up by one with 42 seconds left, Ole Miss forced an offensive foul that got the ball back only to turn the ball over with eight seconds left. Charleston Southern got the ball, and senior guard Saah Nimley drove to the basket but missed on his layup only to be cleaned up by junior forward Cedrick Bowen.
The Rebels under Andy Kennedy are typically very good, winning every season opener since he has been here. Tonight was a different story for Ole Miss, as this was their first season opening loss since 2003 when Arkansas State beat the Rebels 74-69.
“I’ve been doing this for ten years. I’ve never had one like this,” Kennedy said. “You’ve got to do your best to learn from it. It’s easier said than done. They were stunned in there. We’ve got to go and try and get to 1-1 on the road Monday night.”
Down at halftime by a score of 29-17, the Rebels played sloppily. They turned the ball over 11 times and shot 17.9 percent from the field on 5-of-28 shooting.
In the second half, Ole Miss nipped and clawed their way back into the game and tied the game up at 32 with just over 15 minutes left in the game. Ole Miss was unable to take the lead after that and needed an acrobatic layup by junior guard Stefan Moody to send the game into overtime.
On a night where the game came down to rebounding, Ole Miss could not tell in the rebounds that were necessary at key moments in the game. They were out rebounded 54-50 and gave up 19 points on the offensive end, which seemed to have counted the most.
“Rebounding continues to be a huge nemesis for us. Rebounding was our undoing if you can just secure the defensive glass,” Kennedy said. “We haven’t been able to do that for two years.”
It was a poor display of shooting for the Rebels. The Rebels finished at 30 percent from the field and 20 percent from three on 6-for-30 shooting. The Rebels will need to improve on shooting efficiency if they want to win games in the future.
“We good some clean looks, but we were never able to get in a rhythm,” Kennedy said, “Then (senior guard) Jarvis (Summers) fouls out after 23 minutes. It puts you in a position where other guys have to make some plays.”
It never happened. Everyone was out of sorts, even Summers, a popular pick for player of the year in the conference. Summers shot 3-for-13 and from the floor and 1-of-9 from deep. He ended up fouling out right before regulation ended.
The one bright spot for the Rebels was junior guard Martavious Newby. Newby finished with an efficient 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting, 2-of-2 from three point land and 4-of-4 from the free throw line. He also had seven rebounds.
“He was our MVP tonight because of his toughness. He made shots for us, but his toughness is what got us back in the game,” Kennedy said. “I hope that can become more contagious and spread throughout our team. That’s something we’re lacking in a lot of areas.”
Opening up the season with a loss at home is not how the Rebels imagined their 2014-2015 season to start off. While many will question the Rebels after a devastating loss this early in the season, they’ll have to regroup quick with a road game Monday.
“We have to go and try to get to 1-1 Monday night on the road,” Kennedy said. “It’s another test in an away environment, which is something this team has never experience. We’ll see how they respond.”
Ole Miss will look to regroup on the next Monday night against the Troy Trojans at 7 p.m before the Rebels come back home that Thursday night against Southern.
