LaDarius White With A Team-High 17 Points
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) – Marshall Henderson made the go-ahead free throws with 6.4 seconds remaining, and No. 23 Ole Miss survived Auburn, 63-61.
The Rebels (17-2, 6-0 SEC) are off to the best start in program history after sweating out their ninth straight win in the closing seconds of Saturday’s tight battle.
Auburn had a chance to break a 61-61 tie with under 20 seconds to play, only to have Murphy Holloway come away with a clean block of a driving Chris Denson. The block led to a breakout the other way, where Reginald Buckner was denied at the rim by Shaquille Johnson with a lot of contact.
No foul was called, however, and the ball went out of bounds to Ole Miss with 6.4 ticks to go. Before the inbounds pass was even thrown in, Johnson clotheslined Henderson along the sideline, and the SEC’s leading scorer calmly drained the eventual winning free throws.
Frankie Sullivan, the conference’s second-leading scorer, was short on a contested 3-point try for Auburn as the buzzer sounded.
LaDarius White led Ole Miss with 17 points, while Henderson added 15 for the Rebels, who made just 2-of-15 from the charity stripe prior to Henderson’s late makes but connected on 11 3-pointers.
Denson netted a game-high 18 points for the Tigers (8-11, 2-4), losers of four in a row for the second time this season.