Ole Miss snapped its longest losing streak since 2002-03 to crush Auburn’s seemingly slim March Madness dreams with a gutsy 85-79 Southeastern Conference road win Saturday night.
The Rebels (12-17, 4-12 SEC) had dropped their last 10 games but came alive with their second-best shooting day of the season, making 31 of 58 shots from the field (53.4%).
AJ Storr and Patton Pinkins led all scorers with 26 points apiece. Storr came off the bench for the Rebels shooting 9 for 15 from the field to go along with four assists. Pinkins made 8 of his 10 shots, including 4 for 5 from 3-point range, and Malik Dia finished with 10.
Keyshawn Hall helped lead the charge for Auburn (15-14, 6-10) with 21 points, including making 9 of his 10 free throw attempts. Tahaad Pettiford chipped in 24 points, Elyjah Freeman had 15 and Kevin Overton dropped 10.
Auburn built an early second half lead, but Ole Miss responded with a 22-4 run to blow open the game and take a 67-55 lead with 7:32 left.
The Tigers brought it close, but the Rebels never let go of the lead after that.
Ole Miss iced the game with a huge alley-oop, second-chance dunk by James Scott, who had a season-high four blocks, to stretch the lead to 78-71 with 1:11 left.
With the Help of Storr, Ole Miss’ bench dominated Auburn’s, outscoring the Tigers 28-4.
Both teams came out the gates hot with the Rebels making 7 of their first 8 shots and the Tigers making 6 of their first 8. Auburn fell behind by six early but used a 14-2 run that was capped by an acrobatic layup from Filip Jovic to pull ahead 31-25 with 4:46 left in the half.
The Rebels scored the last eight points of the half, including a layup and jumper from Storr, to take a 38-37 lead into the half.
Ole Miss was lights out in the first half making 16 of 27 shots (59.3%) and 5 of 11 from 3-point range. Dia, Storr and Pinkins each got into double digits in the first half with the latter two logging 10 points and the former with 11.
Auburn made 14 of 26 shots (53.8%) in the first half with Hall leading the way with 10 points.
This was Ole Miss’ first win over Auburn, breaking a 10-game head-to-head skid, since the Rebels pulled out an 86-84 overtime win Feb. 6, 2021.
