Chris Beard breaks down what led to Ole Miss' late collapse vs. Alabama

Ole Miss dominated most of the first half against league leader Alabama on Wednesday night, but the game tightened up a little just before halftime and then right away again in the second half.

The Crimson Tide surged ahead just minutes into the second stanza. The Rebels were able to make one run to tie it up at 65-65 but simply couldn’t sustain the momentum from there, for a variety of reasons.

“Untimely turnovers. A couple of wasted offensive possessions. Lack of execution, fatigue, whatever you want to call it,” Ole Miss coach Chris Beard explained. “The ball just kind of stuck on a night when we were really getting anything we wanted offensively when we got the ball reversed and made a couple passes.”

As the Ole Miss offense slowed down, Alabama found its footing and its high-octane offense went to work. The Crimson Tide rained down 15 3-pointers, a barrage that began to break down the defense of the Rebels.

A six-point swing on a flagrant foul from Rebels big man Moussa Cisse only compounded matters.

Still, Beard thought his team had the recipe for a potential upset of the Crimson Tide. There were two key areas where things fell apart for his team.

“Again, we shoot over 50% from the floor. We shoot mid-30s from three,” Beard said. “Got to the free-throw line more than them. So it was the offensive formula to have a chance to win the game. We just can’t overcome 14 offensive rebounds given up, 14-15 turnovers.”

It’s hard to beat Alabama this year. There’s a reason only a handful of teams have done it and the Crimson Tide are a lock to be a low seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Ole Miss found that out the hard way on Wednesday night.

“I thought some of those spurts, in my opinion Alabama plays in spurts,” Beard said. “There’s 10 four-minute games in a college game, and if you just kind of study them like we have, they’re going to try to knock you out in a couple of those segments and that’s exactly what they did.”

Ole Miss will look to pick itself up off the mat on Saturday when it travels to face a Missouri squad that has yet to win a conference game this year. That game tips off at 8:30 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.