NASHVILLE — The Ole Miss men’s basketball team pulled off its third upset in three days Friday night, an 80-79 shocker over 15th-ranked, second-seeded Alabama in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament at Bridgestone Arena.
What’s more impressive than the three wins over higher seeds is the fact that the 15th-seeded Rebels have not trailed in any of the three games. They beat 10th-seeded Texas 76-66 in Wednesday’s first round, then edged seventh-seeded Georgia 76-72 on Thursday.
Ole Miss (15-19) held off a late charge by Alabama (23-9), with the Crimson Tide unable to get a shot off on an in-bound play with one-tenth of a second left on the game clock. The lowest-seeded team to ever advance to the SEC semifinals, Ole Miss will face 17th-ranked, third-seeded Arkansas (24-8) at 3:30 p.m. Eastern on Saturday.
“Yeah, it’s just survive and advance,” said Rebels guard Patton Pinkins, who scored 13 points against Alabama. “We don’t look ahead, we take it one game at a time. Anybody can get hot in March. We’re just trying to keep that up for the next game.”
The Rebels’ surprising run has them just two wins from an SEC title and the league’s automatic berth for the NCAA Division I tournament. It’s expected to be the only route to the 68-team bracket, which will be revealed Sunday night, for Ole Miss after losing 12 of its final 13 regular-season games.