OXFORD — Ole Miss’ Sebastian Saiz has a wide 6-foot-9, 240-pound body and an aggressive demeanor around the basket.
When it comes to rebounding, his strategy is simple.
“I just try to get them all,” Saiz said with a grin.
The senior nearly did Monday night. His 19th rebound led to the game-winning tip-in with 3.3 seconds left that helped Ole Miss rally for a 90-88 victory against Massachusetts at The Pavilion at Ole Miss.
Ole Miss (2-0) trailed for almost the entire second half before staging the comeback. On the Rebels’ final offensive play, DeAndre Burnett drove to the basket, but he missed a contested layup. Saiz was there for the tip-in and UMass missed its final 3-pointer.
Saiz’s basket capped an 11-0 run for the Rebels in the final minutes. UMass took an 88-79 lead on a Donte Clark jumper with 3 minutes, 49 seconds remaining, but the Minutemen never scored again.
“At the end, I thought we were in attack mode,” Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said. “They tried to pressure. When you pressure you expose the open floor. I thought we made some plays at the basket. We were fortunate.”
Saiz had 22 points and a career-high 19 rebounds. He was 4 of 9 from the field and 14 of 18 from the free-throw line. Cullen Neal added 21 points.
UMass (1-1) fell into an early 10-point hole, but rallied to take a 48-40 lead by halftime. Freshman DeJon Jarreau led the Minutemen with 25 points, while Zach Lewis added 20.
Both teams fought through foul trouble late in the game during a whistle-filled evening. UMass was called for 29 fouls, while Ole Miss had 28.
UMass coach Derek Kellogg said the outcome was frustrating, but it was a good learning experience for his young team.
“I’d like them to have a lot of different emotions,” Kellogg said. “The biggest is this should bother us and hurt us. But also a feeling that we opened some eyes that we can play some good basketball when we’re clicking on all cylinders.”
Ole Miss also committed 17 turnovers, which didn’t please Kennedy.
“From the naked eye, I’m looking at it like a fire sale where I am,” Kennedy said. “I’m thinking what in the world are we doing? Because I know what we practice, and I just don’t see it transfer over. But it looks like we’re just not comfortable.”
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