Malik Dia scored 23 points and Ole Miss never trailed in its 76-66 victory over Texas in Wednesday’s first-round game of the Southeastern Conference tournament in Nashville, leaving the Longhorns to sweat out the next three-plus days.
AJ Storr added 18 points and Ilias Kamardine chipped in 16 for the 15th-seeded Rebels (13-19), who won despite making just 1 of 10 3-point attempts. James Scott finished with 10 points and nine rebounds for Ole Miss, which advances to face seventh-seeded Georgia on Thursday.
Dailyn Swain led 10th-seeded Texas (18-14) with 22 points and 12 rebounds. Jordan Pope had 16 points and Matas Vokietaitis scored 10 for the Longhorns, who are now firmly on the bubble and will learn their NCAA Tournament fate on Sunday afternoon.
With the Longhorns trailing by nine, a three-point play by Camden Heide and Pope’s subsequent triple cut the deficit to 66-63 with 4:07 remaining. But the Rebels answered with six straight to put the game away.
Auburn 79, Mississippi State 61
Thanks to Kevin Overton’s 22 points, five assists and four rebounds, the Tigers boosted their NCAA Tournament hopes with a win over the Bulldogs in the first round.
The Tigers (17-15) got 15 points and nine rebounds from KeShawn Murphy, 14 points from Keyshawn Hall and 13 from Tahaad Pettiford. Auburn advances to face fifth-seeded Tennessee (21-10) on Thursday afternoon.
Mississippi State (13-19) got 22 points from Josh Hubbard, its leading scorer who had 46 against Auburn in the regular-season matchup and 42 in Saturday’s loss to Georgia. But Hubbard was 8-of-25 from the floor and missed both of his second-half 3-point attempts.
Kentucky 87, LSU 82
Otega Oweh recorded 23 points and eight rebounds and the Wildcats committed just five turnovers in holding off the Tigers in their first-round game.
Brandon Garrison added 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting and Denzel Aberdeen had 16 for the Wildcats (20-12). Max Mackinnon led LSU (15-17) with 28 points while Michael Nwoko added 16 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
Kentucky will face Missouri, which defeated the visiting Wildcats 73-68 on Jan. 7, in Thursday’s second round. The Wildcats shot 50.0% from the floor and 73.9% from the foul line against LSU in a game that neither team led by more than four in the second half’s first 10 minutes.
Oklahoma 86, South Carolina 74
Nijel Pack scored 24 points and made five 3-pointers to help lead the Sooners to a victory over the Gamecocks in a first-round matchup.
Derrion Reid added 20 points for 11th-seeded Oklahoma (18-14), which kept its NCAA Tournament hopes alive. Tae Davis scored 18 points for the Sooners, who won their fifth straight game and will advance to face sixth-seeded Texas A&M on Thursday night. Xzayvier Brown finished with 14 points in the win.
Kobe Knox led 14th-seeded South Carolina (13-19) with 20 points, followed by Mike Sharavjamts’ 19 points and eight rebounds. Meechie Johnson chipped in 14 points for the Gamecocks, who held a 13-point first-half lead.
