OXFORD, Miss. — Tennessee was beaten at its own game, and its hopes of a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament all but diminished after a 78-76 loss at Ole Miss late Wednesday.
After giving up the go-ahead shot with seven seconds left, Igor Milicic’s game-tying attempt rimmed out as time expired.
TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM
Tennessee (24-6, 11-6 SEC) led at the half and into the second half, but couldn’t put together enough stops down the stretch.
Jaemyn Brakefield, whose put-back shot proved to be the difference, scored all 19 of his points over the last 20 minutes and the Rebels (21-9, 10-7) answered the Vols with run after run.
Jordan Gainey scored a team-high 17 for Tennessee.
Here is everything Vols’ head coach Rick Barnes said about the performance.
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“Give Coach (Chris) Beard and his staff credit. I thought he had his guys much more ready to play than I did. And some of the plays we gave up, forget the last two minutes. It’s the things we did throughout the game, not sticking to our scouting report, transition defense, going at it half-speed, offensive rebounding on their half. They had 46 points in the second half and we just weren’t making plays. But again, I don’t want to take anything away from them. I told our team, I thought (Ole Miss) wanted the game more, which is always disappointing. And we didn’t have the focus that we had.
“We came out and they took a shot, missed it, had a chance to get the defensive rebound and go down and maybe win the game. We didn’t. Executed what we wanted to do there at the end, just didn’t come up with a shot at the end.”
“We didn’t deserve to win this basketball game. When you make those kind of mental mistakes, you don’t deserve to play against the team that is well-coached and played as hard as they played. And they made shots on us. But again, you let a team get comfortable and you’re not as aggressive and you’re not playing smart. Offensive rebounding can just take the wind out of your sail. And they did a great job getting there and, I mean, think, 46 points in the paint. I don’t know what else I can say. Just disappointed. Most of the time in games like this, certainly from where I’m sitting right now, I think you get what you deserved. And we deserve to lose because we didn’t make enough plays to win the game. And I think you got to give them all the credit because even when we had a chance to maybe stretch it out a bit, (we had) some turnovers, just throwing the ball out of bounds, not getting the ball inbounds, all those type things.
“That’s being intense, that’s being focused, that’s doing your job. Because they played hard. (Chris Beard’s) teams play hard. But again, I just don’t want to take anything away from them. Because they did what they had to do to win the game and we didn’t.”
“It’s ridiculous. And we talk about having confrontation. We play like we were — that’s soft, honestly. That’s being soft. That’s you not really trying to go in and make plays on the ball. And guys slide out of the way. There’s got to be a confrontation there. And we’ve been a pretty good rim-protecting team this year, but we weren’t tonight. And you can’t give up, I mean, I don’t know how many and-ones. And we foul on a three-point shooter again, give up a four-point play there. We foul 75 feet from the basket, things like that. That’s a recipe for losing. And that’s what we did.”
“I love him. I love the way he plays. I love his game. He’s patient and everything he did with his shot fakes, driving. I mean, think about it. We wanted him to shoot threes. So if you want a guy to shoot a three, why would you ever take a shot fake. And we kept leaving our feet and he doesn’t need much room. He’s a really good angle player, got great hands and again, he’s a terrific player. He had his way with us. I mean, anybody, we tried different guys on him, but whatever he wanted to do, (he did). You let a player like that start feeling good, that rim opens up for him, (gets) bigger, but he really fought hard to get space where he wanted it, which really good players do and that’s what he did.”
“I didn’t think Felix had one of his better games. He is a guy that normally really protects the rim in there for us, but they went at him. They did. Give them credit. They had their way with him.”
“We didn’t think he was locked in. He comes in, he fouls the three-point shooter, he fouls 75-feet from the basket. But again, we had some times where we mishandled the ball. too. I’m sitting here, my mind’s racing through all this. But yeah, we just didn’t feel like he was locked in.”
“We put it in there. I mean, we wanted to get it in there more, obviously. I mean, they’re a good defensive team. Believe me, it wasn’t our offense. I got no problem with our offense. I got no problem with our offense ’cause they’re a good defensive team. My problem is the way they got to 78 points and you know, they deserve to win. I’m telling you. The way we gave up 78 points, believe me, we deserve to lose this game.”
“I think anybody in our (league that) gets in the tournament, (has) a chance. I mean, anybody in this league, because we saw early in the year, Oklahoma, go win the Bahamas. You saw what we did historically (in the) non-league, and you got a team like, think about Oklahoma, went through that field down there and won it. Georgia early in the year, beat St. John’s, who’s had a fabulous year. South Carolina beat Clemson early in the year. So I would say anybody in the tournament, I think this about anybody, you get in the tournament based on bracketing, based on matchups, they could do as much damage as anybody in our league. And I’d say that about any team of ours that gets into the tournament.”
