OXFORD, Miss. – The University of Tennessee men’s basketball team capped its road slate with a narrow 78-76 setback Wednesday night at Ole Miss.
Fourth-ranked Tennessee (24-6, 11-6 SEC) saw its four-game winning streak end at The Sandy and John Black Pavilion despite leading by nine in the first half and by seven with under 11 minutes to go. Senior guard Jordan Gainey led the team with 17 points in the defeat.
The Volunteers held Ole Miss (21-9, 10-7 SEC) without a field goal for a span of 4:03 late in the first half, forcing six straight misses. After the Rebels ended the skid, fifth-year guard Chaz Lanier drilled a 3-pointer—his 101st of the season—at the other end to give Tennessee a game-best nine-point edge, 29-20, with 6:28 left in the frame.
Ole Miss responded with an 11-1 run in just 1:51—it hit two 3-pointers, one 2-pointer and three free throws—to go in front, 31-30, with 4:18 on the first-half timer. Tennessee, though, scored the next five points to go take a 35-30 advantage just 48 ticks later. It retained the five-point cushion, 41-36, at the break, behind 13 points from Lanier and nine assists from Zeigler, the latter a season high in a half for the senior guard.
Tennessee opened the second-half scoring with a three-point by junior forward Felix Okpara, which upped Zeigler’s assist total to 10 and gave the Volunteers an eight-point lead with 18:32 to go. Ole Miss countered shortly thereafter with four straight field goals in just 71 seconds, leveling the score at 44 with 15:43 to go.
The Volunteers went back up by seven, again on a basket from Okpara off an assist from Zeigler, with 10:39 left, but the Rebels once again answered. They used a 9-2 burst to tie the score at 58 exactly two minutes later and went on to claim a 63-61 lead, their first of the second half, with 6:23 to go. Gainey scored the next five points, two from the line and three from beyond the arc, to put Tennessee ahead by three, but a three-point play by senior forward Jaemyn Brakefield tied it at 66 with 5:11 remaining.
Brakefield’s play sparked an 11-4 surge for Ole Miss, which took a four-point advantage, 74-70, with 2:36 to play, after making its fourth consecutive field-goal attempt. It retained the margin into the final minute, but senior forward Igor Miličić Jr., converted a second-chance four-point play to tie it at 74 with 40 seconds left.
Brakefield put Ole Miss back in front, 78-76, on a second-chance layup with 7.5 seconds on the timer. Tennessee had a chance to tie the game at the buzzer, but missed a shot at the rim to fall by two.
Gainey shot 4-of-9 from 3-point range off the bench en route to his team-best point total, with the four makes matching his most as a Volunteer and setting a new season high. Lanier scored 15 points, 10 of which came in the first 14 minutes, on 6-of-12 shooting.
Okpara totaled 13 points on a 6-of-10 clip, adding a team-best seven rebounds and a game-leading two blocks. Zeigler recorded eight points, a career-high-tying 15 assists and a game-best three steals. The 15 assists tied for the fifth-most in a single game in Tennessee history and made him the first Volunteer ever to twice reach that threshhold.
Zeigler, who has posted both 15-assist outings by an SEC player this season and is one of just two players nationally to hit that mark twice in 2024-25, is the only SEC player in the last 20 seasons (2005-25) to do it in a league road game and/or a regulation road game of any kind. He is just the second SEC player to reach 15 assists in a conference game at any location over the last two decades.
Brakefield, who missed his lone field-goal attempt before the break, scored all his game-leading 19 points in the second half and made all eight of his field-goal attempts. Senior guard Dre Davis had 13 points and a game-high 10 rebounds, half of which came on the offensive end, before fouling out.
Junior forward Malik Dia notched 12 of his 13 points in a first half during which he went 5-of-7 from the floor. Senior guard Matthew Murrell added 12 points for the Rebels.
Tennessee held Ole Miss’ leading scorer, senior guard Sean Pedulla, to seven points on 3-of-11 shooting. He went 1-of-5 beyond the arc, part of an overall clip of 5-of-19 (26.3 percent) for the Rebels that included misses on all eight of their second-half attempts.
However, the victors pulled down 15 offensive rebounds and committed just five turnovers, as well as notched a 46-20 edge in paint points and a 15-2 advantage in fast-break points.
The Volunteers wrap up the 2024-25 regular season Saturday at 2 p.m. when they host South Carolina at Food City Center, live on SEC Network. The team’s seven seniors will be honored after the conclusion of the game.
