Dennis Gates explains what led to big swing in favor of Ole Miss

The Missouri Tigers dropped a game against Ole Miss on Saturday that they led at the half. It was the 12th loss in a row for Missouri and a game that head coach Dennis Gates wishes his team could have pulled out.

While speaking to members of the media, Gates explained what led to the big 19-point swing in favor of Ole Miss during the second half of the game.

“They scored when the clock was stopped on the free throw line,” Dennis Gates said.

Over the course of the game, Ole Miss and Missouri both shot 30 free throws. However, as Gates explained, the timing of their free throws was vital.

“In a half, 20 minutes of play, they shot 30 of them. So, that’s the difference. 30 free throws in 20 minutes. I mean, that’s a free throw every 40 seconds. You can’t defeat that. So, I credit them for getting to the foul line.”

There isn’t an easy fix to the free throw issue, according to Dennis Gates, other than giving him a whistle to call the fouls himself.

“I need to have a whistle and not call the fouls. That’s what I think is the best remedy for it. They drew fouls. I can’t predict that. That’s the referee’s discretion on what they think is a foul or not,” Gates said.

“I thought [Tamar] Bates did come away with several aggressive plays to the basket that he did not get foul calls on. I do know that. A guy that averages 20 points a game, close to, in play. He was aggressive in the basket, no different than the other plays, and he just didn’t come away with the whistle, but I thought our guys did a good job ignoring and playing through a road crowd, which was a great crowd, the adversity, they did a great job facing that, and again, they made tough shots, they got to the foul line, and points in the paint. That’s the game in the second half.”

Ultimately, Dennis Gates felt it was a physical game by both teams and he thought his team did an excellent job within the game itself.

“The second half we were able to get to the free throw line 19 times, and it was a physical game. I thought Ole Miss decided to stop shooting jump shots, duck their head, and play physical and we were doing the same thing, ducking our heads and playing physical, we only shot 11 threes. 11 threes, only eight turnovers,” Gates said.

“So, at the end of the day, we knew what we needed to do and that’s attack the paint…So, I felt our guys did a tremendous job following our gameplan and sometimes the cards are dealt the way they’re dealt.”

With the loss, Missouri fell to 0-12 in SEC play, which is last in the conference, with five games remaining.

Chris Beard details what allowed strong defense for Ole Miss down the stretch vs. Missouri

On the other side, Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard broke down why his team was able to play such strong defense down the stretch.

“We had some fortune, they missed some shots during that stretch and some free throws, but I think you have to recognize some of the things we were doing defensively. We changed the lineup a little bit, we got aggressive. Defense is not just hoping they miss, defense is you have to take something away,” Beard said.

“Austin Nunez probably made the best defensive play of the game. We call that a MIG (most important guy), sometimes you just got to make a play. That’s not coaching, that’s just a guy making a play. I thought during that stretch, when we got back into the game and separated enough to get the win, we were aggressive on defense.”