OXFORD — Ole Miss closed down the Pavilion for the season by making a memory and a statement.
Jaemyn Brakefield made a go-ahead layup with 7.5 seconds remaining, and the Rebels hung on to beat No. 4 Tennessee 78-76 on Wednesday.

Tennessee’s Igor Milicic Jr. missed a short, off-balance shot at the buzzer that would have sent the game to overtime.

Four Southeastern Conference teams — Auburn, Alabama, Tennessee (24-6, 11-6 SEC) and Florida — are vying for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and Ole Miss (21-9, 10-7) earned its second win of the season against one of them. It beat Alabama in January.

The Rebels will get another shot at a contender on Saturday, when they go on the road to play No. 5 Florida in the regular-season finale. The SEC Tournament is in Nasvhille March 12-16.

“It just shows that Ole Miss is here and we’re here to stay,” Brakefield said. “We’re just trying to, like coach (Chris Beard) said, build something in Oxford.”

Ole Miss trailed 56-49 with 10:39 left and used a 9-2 run to tie it at 58 two minutes later. The teams went back and forth until Brakefield’s shot with 7.5 seconds left gave the Rebels a 78-76 lead.

After Sean Pedulla missed a 3-pointer, Brakefield grabbed the rebound and put it back in for the go-ahead shot.

REBS LEAD!@Jaemyn1 x #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/3Pla3ozm1Q

— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) March 6, 2025

Brakefield finished with a game-high 19 points for Ole Miss. Dre Davis had a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds and Malik Dia also scored 13 points. The Rebels scored 46 points in the paint and had 13 second chance points.

“I mean that’s just our game plan, just trying to rebound as a team. Credit to (Davon) Barnes, he tipped the ball right to me. I couldn’t have done it without him and my team,” Brakefield said.

Milicic finished with nine points for Tennessee. Jordan Gainey led the Volunteers with 17 points, and Chaz Lanier scored 15.

Tennessee had one last chance. Milicic took an inbound pass at the 3-point line with three seconds left, drove into the lane and put up an awkward shot from the right block just before the buzzer. It hit the back of the rim and bounced off.

“We didn’t deserve to win this basketball game. When you make those kind of mental mistakes you don’t deserve to play against a team as well coached and played as hard as they played,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. “They made shots on us. But again, you let a team get comfortable and you’re not as aggressive, you’re not playing smart. Offensive rebounding can just take the wind out of your sails and they did did a great job getting there.”

OLE MISS TAKES DOWN NO. 4 TENNESSEE 😱 pic.twitter.com/hLuxPuudId

— ESPN (@espn) March 6, 2025