Ole Miss Loses to Georgia in Round One of the SEC Tournament

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Ole Miss Athletics) – The Ole Miss men’s basketball team concluded its 2019-20 season with an 81-63 setback to Georgia in the first round of the SEC Tournament Wednesday night.

Ole Miss (15-17, 6-12 SEC) was led by Breein Tyree, who scored 18 points, and Devontae Shuler who added 17 of his own. Sophomore forward KJ Buffen recorded 11 points of his own.

While the Rebels held Georgia leading scorer and SEC Freshman of the Year Anthony Edwards to only six points, the Bulldogs (16-16, 5-13 SEC) got 20-point games from Rayshaun Hammonds and Jordan Harris. Hammonds scored a game-high 22 points and pulled down 11 rebounds for a double-double, while Harris tallied 21 points on 8 of 11 shooting.

Georgia started the game on fire, making six of its first seven buckets to jump out to an eight-point advantage. While the Bulldogs started to miss a few shots, Harris scored nine straight points as part of an 11-0 Georgia run to make it a double-digit deficit.

Shuler broke the streak with back-to-back buckets, getting into double figures on his own in the first half. The Rebels made five straight baskets to slice the margin to five. However, a pair of threes, including a buzzer-beating half-court shot by Sahvir Wheeler increased the Georgia advantage to 41-30 at the break.

Both teams shot the ball well in the opening half. Georgia was 15 of 27 (55.6 percent) from the floor, while Ole Miss made half of its field goal attempts (14 of 28). The Rebels held Edwards scoreless in the first half as the SEC Freshman of the Year missed all six of his shots. Shuler (12) and Tyree (10) combined for 22 of Ole Miss’ 31 first half points. On the other side of the court, the duo of  Hammonds (14) and Harris (11) paced Georgia.

After scoring four points in the opening half, Buffen came out to score Ole Miss’ first seven points of the second half. However, Georgia increased its advantage to as much as 17 before the Rebels rallied. An 8-0 run got Ole Miss within single digits, 67-58, with 5:58 to go and forced Georgia coach Tom Crean to take a timeout.

Unfortunately, the deficit was too big overcome. The Bulldogs increased their lead coming out of the timeout, keeping the game in their favor and ending the Rebels’ season.