OXFORD (AP) — Deandre Burnett stuffed the basket in crunch time, ensuring Ole Miss would not be a turkey in its Thanksgiving Day game against Montana.

Burnett hit 5 of 6 free throws in the final two minutes and finished with 21 points as the Rebels held off Montana for an 86-81 win on Thursday.

Cullen Neal added 19 points, including five 3-pointers, Terence Davis scored 18 points, and Sebastian Saiz had 17 points and 13 rebounds.

Sayeed Pridgett led Montana (1-5) with 19 points. Ahmaad Rorie added 18 points and Jack Lopez scored 17.

Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy was pleased with his team’s offense, but the Rebels’ struggles on the defensive end were clearly at the forefront of his mind Thursday.

“Defensively, there’s a recurring theme,” Kennedy said. “We’re giving up 12 made 3-pointers a game at 45 percent. It went down a little bit tonight (Montana was 12-for-33 from the 3-point line, good for 36.4 percent). We’re making a lot of mistakes as it relates to guarding the ball, which creates unnecessary rotations and then the thing that infuriates me — and I’m not supposed to be mad on Thanksgiving — is the scouting report errors. In the gym tonight, you could hear us yelling, ‘Don’t leave. He’s a shooter,’ and we leave. We have to have a little more personal accountability as it pertains to preparing for the game.”

Admission was free on Thursday in Oxford, and the Rebels drew a surprisingly large holiday crowd of 7,358 fans. They put on quite a show for most of the day.

Ole Miss led by as many as 18 points midway through the second half, taking a 62-44 lead on Saiz’s traditional 3-point play. Montana got as close as 81-76 in the final minute. However, Lopez missed a 3-pointer that would have pulled the Grizzlies within one possession, and the Rebels converted at the free throw line over the final 30 seconds to seal it.

“I’m happy we competed and I’m happy we found some grit and didn’t give up,” Montana coach Travis DeCuire said. “We could have easily laid down and lost by 25 or 30. We made some mental errors in the first half and the beginning of the second half that put us in that situation. Once we stopped making mistakes and started competing and crashing the glass, we outplayed them in the last 10 minutes. But sometimes teams get a lead and they don’t do what they’re supposed to do either, but I did think we grew up a little bit today.”

Ole Miss led by 12 at halftime after building a 14-point lead in the first half, thanks primarily to the 3-point shooting of Neal and Davis, each of whom hit three treys in the opening 20 minutes.

The Rebels shot 45.2 percent overall and made 11 of 26 from 3-point range.

“I’m pleased with us offensively,” Kennedy said. “We’re scoring in the high 80s consistently and we’re doing it in an efficient manner. Turnovers continue to come down. If we eliminate some of the foolish ones, we’re decent in that area. We just have to continue to work.”