OXFORD–Tennessee used its small size and speed against Mississippi to come away with a 66-64 Southeastern Conference victory Saturday at Oxford.
“We had to win the battle of the hustle,” Volunteers coach Buzz Peterson said. “We used our small size to get in there and play the speed game rather than the physical game.”
Freshman Stanley Asumnu scored the game-winner on a put-back basket with 2.6 seconds left.
Tennessee (8-3, 1-1 in the Southeastern Conference) tied the game at 64-64 on a layup by Jon Higgins with 1:01 to go.
The Volunteers forced Ole Miss (9-4, 0-2) into a shot-clock violation on their ensuing possession, which gave Tennessee the ball with only 23 seconds remaining.
“We didn’t make the plays we needed to,” said Rebels coach Rod Barnes, who saw his team’s 20-game home winning streak broken. “We had the ball with 20 seconds to go and didn’t make the play. They had some guards who were able to get down there and get on the boards.”
Aaron Harper, who hit six three-pointers, led the Rebels with 23 points. Justin Reed added 14 points.
Slay, who came into the game averaging a SEC-best 22.5 points per contest, got 17 points and four boards. C.J. Watson added another 17 for Tennessee.
“Looking out there, we had four freshmen on the floor,” Peterson said after Slay and Brandon Crump fouled out. “Our kids stepped up and pulled it out.”
Ole Miss forward Justin Reed said the Rebels felt better about their chances when Slay went to the bench.
“It does something to a team when you lose your key player. It was just that we didn’t seem to do the small things,” Reed said.
The Rebels came into the game leading the SEC in scoring defense allowing only 55.3 points per outing.
Ole Miss jumped out to an early double-digit lead behind the hot shooting of Harper and the inside play of Derrick Allen, but Tennessee went on a 10-0 run to trim the margin to just two at 23-21 with just under six minutes to go in the first half.
The Volunteers took their first lead of the game on John Winchester’s 3-pointer to make it 29-28 and led 30-29 at the break.