Ole Miss certainly wasn’t intimidated by Tennessee’s famous defense. It wasn’t even impressed.
The Rebels dominated in the paint, won the rebounding battle and upset the No. 4 Volunteers, 78-76, in Oxford late Wednesday night. Part of that was a shock. Ole Miss has been weak around the backboards.
All is not lost. Tennessee will have a chance to finish on a winning note Saturday afternoon at Food City Center against improving South Carolina.
All is not lost, part 2. The Vols still have the double bye for the Southeastern Conference tournament.
The Rebels’ Jaemyn Brakefield, 6-8 transfer from Duke, inflicted pain and agony on the Volunteers. Felix Okpara couldn’t stop him. Jahmai Mashack couldn’t stop him. He converted eight of nine field-goal attempts. He scored all 19 of his points in the second half, including the winning rebound basket with 7.5 seconds remaining.
Tennessee had a chance to tie. Igor Milicic drove hard to the goal, lost his grip on the ball and lofted an awkward layup that didn’t go in.
Forty seconds earlier, Milicic hit a three and added a free throw to tie the fight at 76.
“Give Ole Miss the credit,” said a disappointed Rick Barnes. “We didn’t deserve to win. Ole Miss was tougher in areas where it had to be tougher. We did not challenge in the paint.”
The Rebel defense was actually better than Tennessee’s. Chaz Lanier scored 13 in the first half and only two after intermission. He said the home team made some adjustments.
Jordan Gainey led the Vols with 17 points. Okpara had 13 and seven rebounds. Milicic scored nine. Zakai Zeigler contributed 15 assists and scored eight.
Rebounding was the surprise. Ole Miss had 15 offensive rebounds. It was next to worst in the SEC in that statistic.
“That bothered me,” said Barnes.
That was the Vol flaw on Brakefield’s winning play.
“Nobody blocked out,” said the coach.
The Tennessee coach gave the Ole Miss coach, Chris Beard, a lot of credit.
“He had his guys much more ready to play than I did. And some of the plays we gave up, forget the last two minutes. It’s the things we did throughout the game, not sticking to our scouting report, transition defense, going at it half-speed, offensive rebounding at their end. They had 46 points in the second half and we just weren’t making plays.”
Barnes told his team that Ole Miss wanted the game more.
“That is always disappointing. And we didn’t have the focus.”
Barnes thought the Vols had a real chance to win the game at the very end – with a three.
“Executed what we wanted to do there at the end, just didn’t come up with a shot.”
Barnes was particularly disappointed with the rebounding and defensive effort in the second half. He fretted about mental mistakes.
“And they made shots on us … you let a team get comfortable and you’re not as aggressive and you’re not playing smart … offensive rebounding can just take the wind out of your sail … and they did a great job getting there.”
Barnes said the Tennessee defense is based on confrontation, challenging shooters.
“It’s ridiculous … we played like we were — that’s soft, honestly. That’s being soft. That’s you not really trying to go in and make plays on the ball … guys slide out of the way … we’ve been a pretty good rim-protecting team this year, but we weren’t tonight … I didn’t think Felix had one of his better games.”
Tennessee is 24-6 overall and 11-6 in the SEC. Chances are slim that it will get a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Chances are slim that it will be ranked No. 4 in the next AP poll.
Tipoff Saturday against South Carolina is set for 2. Before that, Vol stars will be honored at senior day.
Marvin West welcomes comments or questions from readers. His address is marvinwest75@gmail.com
