By Adam Brown
Sports Editor
adam.brown@hottytoddy.com
Ole Miss took the No. 16 Auburn Tigers to the wire in double overtime but came up short in a 83-82 loss inside the Pavilion on Tuesday night.
Ole Miss (10-10, 1-6 SEC) fed off of the crowd in the 50-minute emotional game.
“Great college game. Obviously, I want to thank the students,” head coach Kermit Davis said. “That was the most students that have ever been in The Pavilion – over 2,000. Thanks to every one of them, they made the crowd fun.”
The Rebels were led on the court by junior Devontae Shuler who scored 26 points to go along with team-highs in assists (5) and steals (3). Three of his teammates joined him in posting double-digits – Blake Hinson (16), Khadim Sy (13) and KJ Buffen (10).
“It was great to see Devontae (Shuler). He plays great against Auburn all of the time. I thought Khadim (Sy) competed his tail off. We are a different defensive team when he is in the game because of his length. I thought KJ (Buffen) and Blake (Hinson) fought,” Davis said.
The Tigers held senior Breein Tyree to only eight points, three assists and three rebounds. He fouled out with 5:15 seconds remaining in regulation. Sy was the other Rebel to foul out in overtime.
“Those guys wore us down; we got guys that fouled out. When you lose Tyree for the last 15 minutes of the game, that’s hard for our team,” Davis said.
When Tyree went out of the contest, Auburn found a way to climb back from a 63-54 deficit as they went on an 8-0 run to cut the score to 63-62 with 2:22 left. Shuler then made a free throw to go up by two. The Tigers answered with four quick points and Ole Miss tied it up to send it in overtime with two made free throws from the charity stripe.
“This is the 20th time we have held our opponent’s leading scorer under their season average,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. “Samir Doughty, Isaac Okoro are really good defenders. When he went out, that’s when our press came into work. We forced them to take some shots that Kermit would not have preferred.”
Auburn (18-2, 5-2 SEC) was led on the court by Anfernee McLemore with 19 points and three boards off the bench. Samir Doughty posted 17 points to the stats sheet. A total of five Tigers reached double figures for Pearl’s club.
The Rebels defense brought pressure to Auburn’s offense and held them to shoot only 38.1 percent from the field. The Tigers went 9 of 30 from behind the arc as they opened the contest 0 of 10. Auburn made their first triple of the night with 30 seconds remaining until halftime.
Ole Miss was held to 44.8 percent from the field (26-58) and 75 percent from the free-throw line.
The Rebels look to bounce back on Saturday as they travel to Baton Rouge to take on the No. 22 LSU Tigers. Tip-off is set for 11 a.m. on ESPN2.
