Despite woeful shooting, Ole Miss takes down Mississippi State
AJ Storr and Ilias Kamardine scored 17 points apiece and Patton Pinkins made a go-ahead floater with 18.8 seconds left on Saturday, helping visiting Ole Miss post a 68-67 victory over Mississippi State in Southeastern Conference play in Starkville, Miss.
Malik Dia added eight points and 11 rebounds for Ole Miss (11-7, 3-2 SEC), which won its third straight game despite making just 2 of 20 3-point attempts.
Jayden Epps' 14 points paced Mississippi State (10-8, 2-3), which dropped its third in a row. Josh Hubbard and Jamarion Davis-Fleming scored 13 points apiece in the loss.
Hubbard's 3-pointer cut the Bulldogs' deficit to one with 1:06 left before his free throws gave Mississippi State a 67-66 lead on the next offensive possession.
Pinkins' floater then gave Ole Miss a one-point lead. On the other end, Hubbard missed both free throws.
Storr then missed the front end of a free throw, but Hubbard missed a contested layup in the final seconds.
After Mississippi State missed its first 13 3-point attempts, Achor Achor's triple gave the Bulldogs a one-point lead with 16:37 remaining in the second half.
From there, Kamardine's floater started a 6-0 run to give Ole Miss its largest lead to that point at 40-35.
Trailing by three, the Bulldogs regained the lead as Shawn Jones Jr. and Davis-Fleming's layups put Mississippi State ahead by a point with 9:13 left.
After Storr missed Ole Miss' 17th triple in 18 attempts, Epps' stepback trey gave the Bulldogs a 58-57 lead at the 4:46 mark.
The Rebels finally connected on their second 3-pointer with 2:50 left, as Storr's triple and Kamardine's layup gave Ole Miss a five-point edge.
After Jones' back-to-back dunks gave Mississippi State a 6-0 edge, the Bulldogs built the lead to 11 when Davis-Fleming's four straight points pushed the lead to 22-11.
Eduardo Klafke's consecutive mid-range jumpers pulled Ole Miss within five at the 7:22 mark of the first half.
Following Epps' layup that gave the Bulldogs a seven-point lead, Kezza Giffa's jumper and Augusto Cassia's dunk trimmed Ole Miss' halftime deficit to 30-27.
Ole Miss shot just 1-for-13 on 3-point attempts in the first half, while the Bulldogs went 0-for-12 from long range in the first 20 minutes.