ATLANTA — Ole Miss gets another shot at Georgia. The Rebels (19-13, 9-9 SEC) went to Athens earlier this year and fell to the Bulldogs 61-60.
Georgia (18-12, 12-6) got a free throw from Charles Mann in the final seconds to give Ole Miss another heart-breaking, last-second defeat.
So let’s look at what happened on that final possession that led to Mann getting to the free throw line and winning the game.
Ole Miss is in man-to-man defense. The key defenders on this play are Jarvis Summer and Dwight Coleby. Georgia decides to set a ball screen for Mann.
Summers is guarding Mann, while Coleby is defending Marcus Thornton, the screener for Mann. But as Georgia screens, Ole Miss switches the screen. Giving Georgia matchup advantages, as a freshman big man is now guarding the quicker Georgia guard.
This mismatch is what won the game for Georgia, or at least got Georgia their final point. Now Georgia doesn’t have very good spacing, as Nemanja Djurisic is posting up on the block Mann should be driving toward. Also, Kenny Gaines, number 12 on the near side, has come up way to close to Mann.
But the key here is Mann making a play. He gets to about the elbow and pump fakes. This fake gets Coleby off his feet.
And that is the moment that the game was decided. Coleby ends up jumping into Mann as he starts to shoot. Two free throws for Mann – he went 1 of 2. Mann went to the free throw line 16 times in that game. His ability to draw fouls hurt Ole Miss all game. Mann is second in the SEC with 8.5 free throw attempts per game, but he is just a 69.1 percent free throw shooter.
But this shot is what Ole Miss wants. Mann is shooting just 22.4 percent on two-point jumpers, per Hoop-Math. So switching the screen forced Georgia to take a low percentage shot, but Coleby couldn’t stay down, and Mann got the free throw line.
NOTES
– Ole Miss was faced with a lot of foul trouble last night. Anthony Perez fouled out of the game, Martavious Newby finished with four fouls, and four more Rebels had three fouls. Ole Miss struggled defending Mississippi State off the dribble, which doesn’t bode well with Charles Mann and Kenny Gaines in the opposing lineup.
– Minutes Watch: As Ole Miss will be playing game number two in two days, and Georgia will be coming in on 4 full days of rest, the Rebels may have to beat fatigue. Marshall Henderson and Jarvis Summers each played 35 minutes last night, while Anthony Perez played 29 and Aaron Jones 24.
– Frontcourt Shuffle: Andy Kennedy has been mixing up his frontcourt all season just trying to find production. He started Dwight Coleby and Aaron Jones against Mississippi State, but Coleby only played eight minutes, while collecting three fouls. Demarco Cox played a solid 17 minutes, as he was 4 of 4 from the field and grabbed six rebounds. Sebastian Saiz had six points and five rebounds in 19 minutes. Even Anthony Perez played some time in the post, as he scored 10 points on 3 of 6 shooting. It doesn’t really matter who, but Kennedy needs solid production from at least big guy.
– In the previous matchup with Georgia, Charles Mann scored 17 points, but Kenny Gaines led the Bulldogs with 21 points on 6 of 11 shooting. No one else scored in double figures. Ole Miss held Georgia’s third leading scorer, Brandon Morris, to a 1 of 10 shooting performance.
– The game is set for the same time slot as last night’s win over Mississippi State. Georgia and Ole Miss will tip off 25 minutes following the 6 p.m. CDT game of Kentucky and LSU. So Ole Miss will start at approximately 8:30 central.
–Tyler Bischoff
tfbischo@go.olemiss.edu
