Moody’s 22 Leads Ole Miss Men’s Basketball Past Tennessee

OXFORD, Miss. (Ole Miss Athletics) – Junior guard Stefan Moody led all scorers with 22 points, including six 3-pointers and six steals, as Ole Miss defeated Tennessee 59-57 Saturday night at Tad Smith Coliseum.

For Moody, it was his second-straight game with 20 or more points, as he went 7-for-14 from the field, including 6-for-11 from 3-point range. Senior guard Jarvis Summers joined Moody in double figures with 13 points, to go along with 8 assists, which tied his season high.

“He’s playing with a lot of confidence,” said head coach Andy Kennedy of Moody. “He’s making hard shots for us. Jarvis was aggressive tonight. He made some, missed some, but he made some and he was really creative off the bounce.”

Moody scored eight of his 22 over a 4:16 stretch, during which Ole Miss (19-8, 10-4 Southeastern Conference) went on a 16-3 run to take a 52-47 lead with 8:05 left. He also came up with a loose-ball defensive rebound that led to two free throws for him on the other end that gave the Rebels a 58-57 lead with 1:54 left and proved to be the deciding points in the game.

As a team, Ole Miss forced 13 turnovers, including nine steals. Moody led the defensive effort with six steals, two shy of tying the school record, including five in the second half.

“The 1-3-1 zone got us back in the game,” Kennedy said. “We turned them over. They had 13 turnovers, and they had a two- or three-minute segment, where it was very problematic for them. It got Moody in the open floor and he got to the foul line once, and he made a hard three.”

Despite a 9:37 scoring drought midway through the first half, Tennessee (14-12, 6-8 SEC) surged ahead behind a pair of 7-0 runs late in the half, including one over the last 2:05, to take a 30-27 lead into halftime.

The Volunteers carried the momentum into the second half, scoring eight of the first 11 points of the half to take a 38-30 lead with 16:00 left, their first of three eight-point leads in the game, before the Rebels broke through with a 16-3 run, to take a 52-47 lead with 8:05 left.

“The game got into their pace,” Kennedy said. “The ebb and flow was certainly in their favor. In the second half, we started squeezing possessions. Defensively, we got some turnovers, which allowed us to get out and make that run.”

Tennessee answered with a 5-0 run to tie the game at 52-52 with 6:51, and then it was back and forth, with the game going into the final media timeout tied at 56-56. Moody gave the Rebels a decisive 58-57 lead with two free throws at the 1:54 mark, while the defense held the Volunteers scoreless for the last 3:07 of the game.

Down 59-57 in the final moments of the game, Tennessee senior guard Josh Richardson had two looks at the basket, one on 3-point attempt, and another on a mid-range jumper coming out of a timeout that was called with 4.8 seconds left, but both were off the mark, and Ole Miss came away with the 59-57 win.

“When Josh Richardson, their all-league player, was coming off that hand-off, we wanted to reach out and foul him,” Kennedy said. “I was looking at the clock and I was waiting for a foul to happen. He turns the corners, shot-fakes us, gets a clean look, and finally we got a kind bounce.”

The Rebels continue a two-game home stand hosting Georgia on Wednesday night (8 p.m. CT, SEC Network), before traveling to LSU on Saturday (1 p.m. CT, Fox Sports Net).