Malik Dia, Ole Miss deal Texas damaging loss in SEC tourney
Malik Dia scored 23 points and Ole Miss never trailed in its 76-66 victory over Texas in Wednesday's first-round game of the Southeastern Conference tournament in Nashville.
AJ Storr added 18 points and Ilias Kamardine chipped in 16 for the 15th-seeded Rebels (13-19), who won despite making just 1 of 10 3-point attempts. James Scott finished with 10 points and nine rebounds for Ole Miss, which advances to face seventh-seeded Georgia on Thursday.
Dailyn Swain led 10th-seeded Texas (18-14) with 22 points and 12 rebounds. Jordan Pope had 16 points and Matas Vokietaitis scored 10 points for the Longhorns, who will learn their NCAA Tournament fate on Sunday afternoon.
Trailing by 11 points at halftime, Texas opened the second half with 3-pointers by Tramon Mark and Pope, closing the gap to 41-36.
Pope's third triple pulled the Longhorns within five, but Ole Miss answered with a 9-1 run to take a 62-49 edge on Storr's layup at the 8:44 mark.
Swain's dunk with 5:19 left snapped a seven-plus minute drought without a made field goal, cutting Ole Miss' lead to seven. After Scott's dunk extended the lead to nine, Camden Heide's three-point play and Pope's subsequent triple cut the deficit to 66-63 with 4:07 remaining.
From there, Kamardine found Scott on a lob dunk, before Scott's putback layup on the next possession gave Ole Miss a seven-point cushion with 1:46 left. Kamardine's steal and layup then stamped the pivotal 6-0 Rebels run.
Kamardine's jumper gave Ole Miss a 9-2 lead, before the Rebels built an eight-point edge on Eduardo Klafke's three-point play with 12:01 left in the opening half.
Texas missed 13 of its first 15 shots from the field, falling behind 20-10 on Dia's layup. After seven straight 3-point misses, Pope's trey broke the seal for the Longhorns, trimming the deficit to nine with 9:23 left.
After seeing its cushion reduced to five, Ole Miss opened the lead back up to 11 on Storr's layup, forcing a Texas timeout with 1:36 left. Dia's driving left-handed layup closed the scoring in the opening half, giving Ole Miss a 41-30 halftime advantage. Dia's 17 first-half points paced all scorers.