‘We got kicked today’: Sterling start for Beard, Ole Miss basketball snapped at Tennessee

Ole Miss basketball, for the second time in program history, won each of its first 13 games to open a season. The Rebels tied their longest-ever winning streak.

It all came to a crashing halt at No. 5 Tennessee on Saturday.

The No. 22-ranked Rebels — in their toughest test to day, and to open SEC play — were humbled, 90-64, by the Volunteers. Tennessee has won nine of the last 11 in the series.

Ole Miss returns to action next Wednesday. The Rebels host Florida at 9 p.m. CT.

“What we just talked about in our locker room, nobody can take away those 13 straight wins,” first-year Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard said. He’s led three different teams to a 10-0 start since 2016. The previous two reached the NCAA Tournament. The Rebels last got there in 2018-19. 

“I think that’s an important thing for any team — to string some wins together. Ultimately, you’ve got to win six games in three weekends to win on the final Monday night. That’s certainly our goal at Ole Miss. Long ways to get there, obviously. For our team to have the ability to win some games in a row is a positive. Now we’re in SEC play. It all starts over. We’re 0-1. Couple days here to practice and try to get our first SEC win on Wednesday.”

Tennessee abused Ole Miss in the paint. 

The Volunteers out-rebounded the Rebels 47-27. Ole Miss has now come out on the wrong end of the rebounding battle in all but three of its games. 

Star Volunteer forward Jonas Aidoo had a game-high 24 points on 10 of 19 shooting. He added 10 rebounds and two assists. Ole Miss had three players score double-digit points. Jaemyn Brakefield had 22. The third-year Rebel, a one-time transfer from Duke, made 7 of 8 from the field, including both of his threes. Point guard Jaylen Murray, an off-season transfer addition from Saint Peter’s, had 11 points and eight rebounds.

Times were so desperate for the Ole Miss front court, Beard even tried his pair of 7-footers, Moussa Cisse and Jamarion Sharp, on the floor together for a short stretch in the second half.

In the end, the Rebels were simply outclassed in every way.

“Definitely was trying everything I could do,” Beard said. “We got kicked today. It’s not just the players; it’s us, too. It’s the coaching staff (and) the whole organization. You tip your hat when someone outplays you like that. 

“Certainly we were trying different things. But if you don’t have the physicality and effort and competitiveness, it doesn’t matter what you do scheme-wise. Obviously we were getting out-rebounded and played Moussa and Sharp together. In the first couple of minutes of that segment we might have rebounded a little bit better. But that wasn’t the tell of this game. They were more competitive, they were more physical and they executed their game plan a lot better than we did in the second half.”

Ole Miss trailed 40-31 at the half. The Rebels made 42.6 percent (23 of 54) of their shots and 37.5 percent (6-16) of their threes.

“The first 19 minutes, I thought we went nose-to-nose (and) toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the country on a night where the basket wasn’t opening up for us early,” Beard said. “I was proud of our effort. To be down seven nor eight and holding our own on the backboard for the first 20 minutes of the game, there’s a lot of positives there. 

“Second half, not a lot of strategy to take about. We got whipped.”