On Thanksgiving Day, Stanford men’s basketball fell to Ole Miss by a final score of 72-68. The game was part of the ESPN Events Invitational in Orlando, Florida. Ole Miss guard Amaree Abram was the top performer for the Rebels with 26 points and 4 rebounds while forward Jaemyn Brakefield had 17 points and 8 rebounds. Stanford forward Harrison Ingram was the top performer for the Cardinal with a career-high 24 points and 4 rebounds while forward Spencer Jones had 13 points. Ole Miss improves to 5-0 on the season while Stanford falls to 2-3.

“First half was a disappointing offensive performance,” Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said after the game. “And the second half was a disappointing defensive performance. Overall, the guys did try hard, but we weren’t able to execute enough to get the result we wanted.”

Ole Miss had a 12-6 lead with 15:18 to go in the first half. Stanford was in an early hole. James Keefe had a lucky bucket that he banked in from deep to beat the shot clock. His toe was on the line, so it was a two-pointer.

15-11 Ole Miss continued to lead with 11:37 minutes to go until halftime. Michael Jones had a nice cut and a hoop plus the harm for Stanford, converting on his free throw. It was still a tight game.

A 3-pointer from Harrison Ingram would cut it to one for Stanford (15-14) with 11:02 to go in the half. Spencer Jones would then get a bucket inside for Stanford. This made it 16-16 with 7:44 to go in the half. 24-18 Ole Miss would once again lead with 3:35 to go in the half. Stanford had to start making some threes. Their perimeter game was not strong at the moment. At halftime, it was Ole Miss 29 Stanford 22. Michael O’Connell made a pair of free throws for Stanford while Maxime Raynaud got a nice slam inside. Ole Miss responded with a jumper to beat the buzzer.

Ole Miss would lead 46-35 with 14:28 to go. Stanford was holding Matthew Murrell, Ole Miss’ top scorer, to no field goals, but others were stepping up for the Rebels. Spencer Jones finally starting to heat up for the Cardinal after getting some shots to fall.

Ole Miss would then lead 59-48 with 7:57 to go. Stanford cut it to 4 points, but Ole Miss was back up by 11. Abram was leading the Rebels with 21 points. Ingram was leading the Cardinal with 14 points.

“Their player Abram did a heck of a job,” Haase said. “We tried different ways to play the ball screen coverages, tried different personnel packages. At the end of the day, he played a great game, made a big shot at the end of the game as well. We were not able to contain him. And so, that was a turning point or kind of a continued turning point of the game that we weren’t able to get done and now it’s a quick turnaround. Excited to have another opportunity tomorrow.”

65-55 Ole Miss continued to stay in front with 2:45 to go. Stanford had missed some buckets inside that they should have made and then had a couple of bad defensive breakdowns that led to some easy hoops.

With 1:56 to go, it was a 65-61 lead for Ole Miss as Stanford was on a 6-0 run. Ingram was up to a career-high 22 points. This was the kind performance Stanford needed him to have. He was stepping up big time.

“Overall, I thought he played aggressively,” Haase said of Ingram’s performance. “Got to the paint, made open shots, was in foul trouble, had a block in the first half that put him on the bench for 10 minutes and then what we needed to do is just continue to grow him and continue to grow the rest of the team.”

A bucket inside from Ingram made it a 65-63 game, but then Abram made a huge 3-pointer to make it a 68-63 lead for Ole Miss with 27 seconds to go as the shot clock was running down. Ingram then attempted a three, but it didn't fall. 69-63 with 16.7 to go.

In the end, Ole Miss walked out with a 72-68 victory. Spencer Jones pulled a Josh Karty, making a really impressive booming 3-pointer to beat the buzzer. Stanford did a great job holding Ole Miss’ leading scorer Matthew Murrell to just 6 points after he came in averaging over 17 points per game. The problem was others for Ole Miss got rolling, most notably Amaree Abram.

At this point, all Stanford can do is move on to the next game and put this one behind them. On Friday, they’ll face Florida State at 10:30 AM PT on ESPNEWS. After falling to Siena, Florida State is now 1-5 overall. They’re an opponent Stanford really needs to beat.

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