by Parrish Alford/NEMS Daily Journal
6 months ago | 568 views | 0

|
8 
|
|

Alabama guard Charvez Davis, left, drives past Ole Miss' Chris Warren during an NCAA college basketball game Saturday in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Ole Miss won 76-73. (AP Photo/The Tuscaloosa News, T.G. Paschal)
slideshow
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Ole Miss turned on the comeback jets but with an unlikely pilot at the wheel, Trevor Gaskins.
One of five players in double-figures, Gaskins had season-highs in points, 3-point attempts and makes in helping the Rebels to a 76-73 win over Alabama on Saturday, their fourth victory on the SEC road this season.
A Coleman Coliseum crowd of 11,147 watched Gaskins' big shots keep Ole Miss in the game and set the table for the Rebels' better-known players, Terrico White and Chris Warren, to seal it at the end.
The Rebels' fourth SEC road win keeps alive hopes for an NCAA tournament bid, but at 19-9 overall and 7-7 in the SEC, there's still much ground to cover. The Rebels are back home Thursday against LSU.
White hit a 3-pointer from the corner in front of the Ole Miss bench with 31.2 seconds left for a 74-72 lead, and, after Alabama's JaMychal Green missed one of two free throws, Chris Warren tightened the screws with two free throws with 8.6 seconds left.
"Big plays like that, that's what you need from your all-league guys," Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said.
After Alabama's Tony Mitchell missed a 3-pointer from the key in the final seconds, Ole Miss had secured its first season sweep of the Crimson Tide since 1998. The Rebels rallied from 23 points back in the second half to beat Alabama 74-67 in Oxford. They were 14 points back with a little more than 10 minutes left before they rallied to beat Auburn Wednesday.
White was 3-for-4 from the arc in the first half, the last shot a buzzer-beater after a missed free throw to make it a 33-31 game for Alabama at halftime.
Alabama coach Anthony Grant didn't want White to beat him, at least not in the same way White helped beat Auburn.
"We wanted to take away their ability to get to the free-throw line with dribble penetration," Grant said. "We tried to make adjustments in the second half, especially on White, but Gaskins and some of their other players stepped up."
Grant said he thought his defenders could buy a little space in guarding White, who was shooting just 28.3 from 3-point range in SEC games.
"They left me open on the wing, and when you leave me open I'm going to shoot it," White said. "When I came off that screen there at the end I was really open."
Grant's strategy was the same strategy Kennedy employed against Alabama junior college transfer Charvez Davis, who went 5-for-8 from the arc and scored a career-high 19 points.
"We were playing the percentages there, and he hit some shots that kept them in the game," Kennedy said.
In the end, neither Davis nor Mikhail Torrance, who also had 19 for the Tide, could get a clean look to force overtime.
Mitchell, a freshman, began the day shooting 31.9 percent, the fifth-best rate among Alabama regulars.
White, three days after scoring 21 points against Auburn mostly with penetration and free throws, was 4-for-6 from the arc for 15 points.
Gaskins had 14 points, eight of them in a 12-0 run in second half that brought the Rebels back from a 48-37 deficit with 15:21 to play. He was 5-for-9 from the floor, 4-for-7 from the arc and had two assists in 15 minutes.
Murphy Holloway led Ole Miss with 16 points. Warren had 12, and Terrance Henry had 11.
"We were kind of flat offensively when Trevor came off the bench and gave us a boot we really hadn't been getting," Kennedy said. "Then our playmakers made plays, Terrico with the big 3, and Chris sealing it at the line. It was a team effort."
Click here for the notebook.