Chris Beard gives honest assessment on what Texas win does for Ole Miss

No. 23 Ole Miss held on for a gutsy 72-69 win over Texas on its home floor on Wednesday night.

It was the first time Rebels head coach Chris Beard has coached against the Longhorns since he was the head coach at Texas, a position he held from 2021-23. After the game, Beard kept it casual when discussing the matter.

“It’s just the next game on the schedule,” Beard said. “We don’t overreact during the victory. Stay humble and get back to work. When things don’t go our way, you guys say we lost three games in a row, I see it a little bit differently. I thought we ran out of time on two of those games. To me, there’s a difference between running out of time and losing.”

Ole Miss found its production in three places on Wednesday night: 19 points from Sean Pedulla, 18 off the bench from Jaemyn Brakefield and 17 from Dre Davis. No other Rebel during the matchup scored more than six points, and the trio accounted for all but 18 of Ole Miss’ 72 points on the night.

In the end, Texas’ Tre Johnson was unable to find the bottom of the net after breaking free for a corner 3-pointer at the buzzer. Johnson scored a game-high 22 points in the loss.

The victory over the Longhorns snaps a three-game skid for Ole Miss after beginning conference play 4-0.

Ole Miss’ losing streak came against three ranked opponents, which isn’t surprising given 10 teams in the conference found themselves in the AP Top 25 poll this week. They lost to No. 15 Mississippi State on the road in overtime, No. 13 Texas A&M by one point and 83-75 on the road against No. 22 Missouri.

Beard said the SEC schedule has turned into an 18-round fight. The Rebels won the latest round on Tuesday night.

“Tough stretch for us, but again, lots of good basketball against a quality opponent during that stretch,” Beard said. “Just trying to remind the guys the sun’s going to come up tomorrow and we’ve got another chance to play SEC basketball.”

Next up for Ole Miss will be Saturday’s homestand against No. 1 Auburn, which is one of two times these programs will match up during February. Tip-off for the first bout is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET and will air live on ESPN as the Rebels look to snap Auburn’s 12-game win streak.