Memphis basketball dismantles the no. 16 Ole Miss, adds to NCAA resume

On By Littum

The Memphis basketball team had to make a statement against the no. 16 Miss Ole Saturday.

The Tigers got just that with an 87-70 victory over the Rebels (11-2) in front of an estimated crowd of more than 15,000, including Memphis legends Jerry “The King” Lawler and “The Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart.

Colby Rogers rebounded from back-to-back tough outings with a season-high 28 points, one of his career highs. Tigers leading scorer PJ Haggerty chipped in with 17, while Moussa Cisse — against his former team — recorded a double-double (13 points and 11 rebounds), his first since March 15, 2023, when he was at Oklahoma State.

The Tigers (10-3), with as many March Madness rebuilding wins as they had piled up, lost some of that momentum last week with a loss to Mississippi State – their second loss at FedExForum in as many games. Penny Hardaway’s team also needed the win because it won’t get another potential Quad 1 opportunity for the rest of the season.

Now Memphis has eight Quad 1 and Quad 2 wins, more than any team in the country.

Three Rebels scored in double figures, but the Tigers held Memphis native Matthew Murrell to just seven points on 3-of-11 shooting.

Ole Miss went on a 7-1 run late in the second half to cut into a 75-60 Memphis lead. But Rogers put an end to that, sinking his sixth 3-pointer with 4:06 left. Dain Dainja then made back-to-back buckets to push the Tigers’ advantage to 16 points.

Dainja gave Memphis 16 points, while Nicholas Jourdain had eight points, seven rebounds, six assists and three blocks.

The Tigers came out swinging to start the game. Haggerty found Cisse 13 seconds into the game with an emphatic alley-oop dunk that drew raucous applause from the crowd.

Memphis applied constant pressure throughout the majority of the first half and led by as many as 13 points with less than eight minutes remaining before halftime. Rogers, who was 1-of-19 from the field in two games last week, and Haggerty combined for 21 points in the first half.

But Ole Miss eventually found its footing.

The Rebels outscored the Tigers 24-11 over the final seven minutes of the first half. That run was fueled by a stretch in which the Rebels went 7-of-8 from the field, including four 3-pointers.

Before that, Ole Miss was 6-of-21 overall and 1-of-8 from beyond the arc.

Clinging to a 38-36 halftime lead, the Tigers started the second half with much of the same energy and success as the first. They pushed their narrow lead to a nine-point advantage in the opening minutes.

Then Ole Miss’ Mikeal Brown-Jones was ejected with a flagrant 2 technical foul after he appeared to hit Cisse. The Tigers made both free throws to make it an 11-point game.

Memphis opens AAC play at FAU on Thursday (6 p.m., ESPN2).

Reach sportswriter Jason Munz at [email protected] or follow him @munzly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.