Moody scores 22, leads Ole Miss past Oregon 79-73

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) The smallest player on the floor provided the perfect exclamation point for Mississippi's statement win on Sunday.

Stefan Moody's two-handed dunk with 36 seconds left punctuated his 22-point performance that helped lead the Rebels (6-2) to a 79-73 victory over Oregon and avenged an overtime loss at home to the Ducks (5-3) last season.

''I'm glad we could repay the favor,'' Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said.

The 5-foot-10 Moody was one of five Rebels to reach double figures, which didn't include leading scorer Jarvis Summers, who finished with just one point.

''It's not just me taking on more of a role,'' Moody said. ''Every night we just look for somebody to give us that flame, and tonight it just happened to be me.''

Sebastian Saiz added 17 points for Ole Miss, which also had three players off the bench in double figures. LaDarius White finished with 13 points, and Aaron Jones and Dwight Coleby had 10 each.

Freshman Dillon Brooks led the Ducks with a season-high 21 points, and Pac-12 scoring leader Joseph Young added 17. It was Oregon's first loss in six home games.

Ole Miss outscored the Ducks 35-5 in points off the bench.

''We knew we had a size advantage'' Kennedy said, ''so we had to be able to score effectively inside and do a good job off the glass, and tonight we did both.''

M.J. Rhett and Martavious Newby led Ole Miss to a 46-39 rebounding edge with seven each.

There were seven ties and 17 lead changes in the first half before the Rebels went on a 10-0 run to move ahead 33-24. Oregon missed eight consecutive shots during Ole Miss' spurt, including a four on one possession.

The Rebels closed out the half with a little luck when Rhett swatted home a rebound tip before Moody banked in a floater from the top of the key at the buzzer for his fourth 3 and a 47-33 advantage.

The Rebels led by as many as 18 points in the second half before Oregon cut the deficit to single digits several times, but the final six-point margin was as close as the Ducks would come.

''We got beat in almost all phases of the game,'' Oregon coach Dana Altman said. ''Second-chance points were big. We got a lot of offensive rebounds, we just didn't finish a lot of them.''

''We only had eight turnovers, but it turned into 15 points. We dug ourselves a big hole in the first half and we never recovered.''

Summers' single point came when he made 1 of 2 free throws late in the game before fouling out with four assists in 29 minutes. The senior guard, and Southeastern Conference's active career leader in points (1,330), barely avoided being shut out for just the second time in 109 games as a Rebel.

''He's been struggling the last three or four games,'' Kennedy said. ''I told our team before the game that that's what a team's about.''

''Other guys have to step up until Jarvis gets back to being the all-league player we're accustomed to seeing, and tonight we got contributions from a number of different players.''

MANAGING THE CLOCK

Moody's buzzer-beating 3 in the first half came after the Rebels forced Oregon freshman Casey Benson into a turnover and White came up with the loose ball. Moody said he took off running and eyed the shot clock. ''I saw there were three seconds, looked to the right at Snoop, he threw it to me and I just floated it in,'' Moody said.

GET A MOVE ON

Ole Miss relied on a mix of man and zone defenses, and the effect was that the young Ducks struggled to get off good shots, going 8-for-31 (25.8 percent) from the arc. ''We didn't have enough movement, ball movement, or just player movement,'' said freshman Ahmaad Rorie, who matched his season high with 10 points. ''It was real stagnant, just everybody standing around. We should have been pushing the ball more.''

TIP-INS:

Mississippi: Moody came into the game shooting 21.9 percent from 3-point range but made all four of his attempts in the first half and finished 4-for-5. . Saiz, Coleby and Jones each had season-high scoring in the game. . Ole Miss is now 5-0 when leading at the half.

Oregon: Brooks had 11 points in the first half and is the only Duck to score in double figures in Oregon's first eight games. . Young, who came in averaging 20.9 points per game, continues to struggle from long range. After going 2-for-10 against Ole Miss, the senior is 6-for-40 (15.0 percent) over his last five games.

UP NEXT:

Mississippi hosts Western Kentucky on Saturday.

Oregon plays Illinois in Chicago on Saturday.