NCAA BASKETBALL: Malik Dia, Ole Miss deal Texas damaging loss in SEC tourney

Malik Dia scored 23 points as Ole Miss never trailed in its 76-66 victory over Texas in Wednesday's first-round game of the Southeastern Conference tournament in Nashville.

AJ Storr added 18 points, while Ilias Kamardine contributed 16 for the 15th-seeded Rebels (13-19), who advanced despite making just 1 of 10 3-point attempts. James Scott finished with 10 points and nine rebounds for Ole Miss, which will face seventh-seeded Georgia on Thursday.

For 10th-seeded Texas (18-14), Dailyn Swain led with 22 points and 12 rebounds. Jordan Pope scored 16 points, and Matas Vokietaitis added 10 points. The Longhorns will learn their NCAA Tournament fate on Sunday.

Trailing by 11 points at halftime, Texas opened the second half with 3-pointers by Tramon Mark and Pope, cutting the deficit to 41-36. Pope's third triple brought the Longhorns within five, but Ole Miss responded with a 9-1 run, taking a 62-49 lead on Storr's layup with 8:44 remaining.

Swain’s dunk with 5:19 left snapped a seven-minute scoring drought, narrowing Ole Miss’ lead to seven. After Scott's dunk extended the advantage to nine, Camden Heide’s three-point play and Pope’s subsequent triple cut the deficit to 66-63 with 4:07 remaining.

From there, Kamardine found Scott for a lob dunk, and Scott's putback layup on the next possession gave Ole Miss a seven-point cushion with 1:46 left. Kamardine’s steal and layup sealed a pivotal 6-0 Rebels run.

Earlier in the game, Kamardine's jumper gave Ole Miss a 9-2 lead, and the Rebels built an eight-point advantage on Eduardo Klafke's three-point play with 12:01 left in the first half. Texas missed 13 of its first 15 shots, falling behind 20-10 on Dia’s layup. After seven consecutive 3-point misses, Pope’s trey trimmed the deficit to nine with 9:23 left in the half.

Ole Miss briefly saw its lead shrink to five before opening it back up to 11 on Storr's layup, forcing a Texas timeout with 1:36 left. Dia’s driving left-handed layup closed the scoring in the half, giving Ole Miss a 41-30 advantage. Dia’s 17 first-half points paced all scorers.

-Field Level Media/Reuters