Tuesday, January 6, 2015

No. 1 Kentucky 89, Ole Miss 86

Ole Miss gave undefeated and top-ranked Kentucky a good ol' scare as the Wildcats needed overtime to finally take the win from the Rebels at a shocked but relieved Rupp Arena.

The Rebels had Kentucky on the ropes before letting it get away.

A turnover with :30 to play in regulation and a point taken off the board by the referees (A Snoop White 3 was converted to a 2 four minutes after the shot - very weird) cost the Rebels a game they otherwise might have won.

The video evidence as to whether Snoop's foot was on the line appeared inconclusive, but the referees were determined to find a way to reverse the 2nd-half trey, playing it on loop for four minutes straight until they could find a reason to take away the point (that's what it felt like on my end anyway).

But Ole Miss still had Kentucky right where it wanted the Wildcats with :30 on the clock, holding on to a 77-76 lead with barely more than a shot clock remaining. That's when Jarvis Summers turned the ball over as he ran into a Wildcat trap in the backcourt. One converted free throw by Kentucky later, that point that the referees took away from Snoop's 3-pointer haunted the Rebels worse than any Friday the 13th or Texas Chainsaw Massacre ever.

It was a great effort by the Rebels, and it gives us some hope that Ole Miss (9-5, 0-1 SEC) may be better than we think. The fantastic effort certainly has me excited about basketball.

Stefan Moody (26 pts) was awesome, and for the first 3/4 of the game he looked like the 2nd coming of Marshall Henderson as he sprinted outside the perimeter to accept a pass and fire up a three - nothing but net. But Moody's spectacular play gave way to cramps late. If it hadn't been for those cramps, who knows what might have happened?
Snoop White (15 pts with some super-clutch 3-pointers) and Jarvis Summers (23 pts) also played really gutsy ball.

The Rebels went to Kentucky to win, and the effort was much appreciated by this Ole Miss blogger. That same amount of fight will win a lot of SEC games if Andy Kennedy can get the kids to bring it to the gym for the remaining 17 SEC games.

My favorite play of the game was this by Aaron Jones: