David Jones tallied 22 points (9-of-17), seven rebounds and a pair of assists to lead Memphis in the loss. Nicholas Jourdain added 10 points and pulled down seven boards while Malcolm Dandridge put up 13 points and collected four rebounds.
Memphis fell behind 7-0 in the first two minutes of action before finding its rhythm. Jones connected on seven-straight points to spark a 19-2 run and put the Tigers in front by 10. Ole Miss (7-0) knocked down six triples in the first 20 minutes to keep the game within reach, but Memphis took a 37-30 lead into the break before stretching it to as many as 11 in the early minutes of the second half.
Behind 55.9 percent shooting in the second half, Ole Miss managed to regain the lead at 53-51 with 13:33 to play. The two sides battled the rest of the way with neither team leading by more than two possessions. Down one with less than three minutes on the clock, Jourdain cleaned up a miss from Jahvon Quinerly at the rim to give Memphis a 73-72 lead. After Memphis and Ole Miss traded buckets, the Rebels got a tough bucket from Jaylen Murray to regain the lead for good with 18 seconds to play.
After Ole Miss made a free throw to go up 80-77 with 6.6 seconds on the clock, Memphis inbounded the ball to Quinerly who drove it up court and fired an off-balanced, game-tying three in the final seconds.
Memphis shot 42.5 percent for the game (31-73) and had just 12 assists on its 31 field goals. The Tigers were hampered by shooting 16.7 percent from three-point range (3-18).
Ole Miss was 11-for-22 from distance (.500), and the Rebels were led by Murray’s 22 points and nine assists. Memphis native Matthew Murrell added 20 points, six rebounds and five dimes.
UP NEXT
Memphis will continue its tough road trip with a pair of big games next week. On Wednesday (Dec. 6), the Tigers travel to VCU for a 6 p.m. CT tip, before concluding the week at No. 14 Texas A&M on Sunday (Dec. 10) at 3:30 p.m.
It will be the first visit to VCU for the Tigers since Feb. 5, 1990, and the first to College Station since Dec. 13, 1965.
POSTGAME NOTES
- Memphis used the starting lineup of Jahvon Quinery, Caleb Mills, Jaykwon Walton, David Jones and Jordan Brown for the fifth-straight game.
- Memphis still leads the all-time series between the two schools, 29-16, despite having not won in Oxford since 2005.
- Jones has now led Memphis in scoring four times this season, with all of them coming in the last five outings. He has scored in double figures in all seven games.
- Dandridge’s 13 points are a season high after going 6-of-9 from the floor in 20 minutes. He also added three blocks to give him 14 on the year.
- Jourdain’s seven rebounds were a season high.
- Quinerly dished six of the team’s 12 assists. It marks his second-highest total of the season.
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