Ole Miss has had its share of long nights this season, but Tuesday’s 89-86 overtime loss to No. 22 Vanderbilt felt like another reminder that, even in a disappointing year, this group hasn’t packed it in.
They’ve been punched in the gut plenty, and they still keep showing up, playing hard, and dealing with some late‑game officiating moments that would test anyone’s patience.
The Rebels actually opened like a team trying to flip the script. James Scott’s alley‑oop set the tone for a 15-3 start, the kind of burst that wakes up a building and makes you wonder if maybe the record doesn’t tell the whole story.
Vanderbilt eventually steadied itself and grabbed a 32-29 lead, but Ole Miss closed the half on an 8-1 run and walked into the locker room up 37-33. For a team sitting at 12-18, that’s not nothing.
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— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) March 4, 2026
The second half followed the same pattern: Ole Miss controlling the game, Vanderbilt hanging around, neither side able to create real separation.
The Rebels led for most of the first 14 minutes, and when Malik Dia muscled in an and‑one with just over a minute left to make it 74-70, it felt like they’d earned a chance to finish one off.
Then came the sequence everyone will be talking about.
UP and IN‼️#HottyToddy x #Culture pic.twitter.com/UnXHH25UL1
— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) March 4, 2026
Before Dia could shoot his free throws, Vanderbilt appealed a play from 25 seconds earlier, arguing he tripped AK Okereke in transition. After a long review, officials hit Dia with a flagrant. He fouled out, made his free throws, Okereke made his, and suddenly a four‑point lead evaporated into a tie. Ole Miss still had a shot at the buzzer, but it rimmed out, and the game drifted into overtime.
And even then, the Rebels didn’t fold. They traded punches, trimmed an 87–83 deficit to two, and had a chance to tie when Ilias Kamardine went to the line.
Before his second free throw, Ole Miss appealed for an elbow on Patton Pinkins. Another review, another rejection.
Kamardine missed, and on the rebound, Jayden Leverett looked like he was fouled immediately. Instead, Vanderbilt got a timeout. The Commodores hit their free throws, and that was that.
It’s the seventh loss by seven points or fewer this season, which tells its own story. Ole Miss hasn’t been good enough to win these games, but it also hasn’t quit on any of them. Corey Chest pulled down 11 rebounds, Kamardine hit three threes, Pinkins scored 16, all are signs that the effort is still there, even when the breaks aren’t.
This season hasn’t gone the way anyone hoped, but the Rebels aren’t rolling over.
With South Carolina coming to town Saturday, they’ve got one more shot to show that the fight, at least, hasn’t gone anywhere.
