White leads streaking Mississippi past Auburn, 86-79

AUBURN, Ala. (AP) LaDarius White, Stefan Moody and Jarvis Summers were lukewarm in the first half and red-hot in the second.

White scored 20 points, Moody had 15 and Summers 13 - most of it after the half - to lead Mississippi to an 86-79 victory over Auburn on Saturday night.

The Rebels (16-7, 7-3 Southeastern Conference) lost most of a nine-point lead in the second half before regrouping to win a fifth straight league game for the first time since the 2012-13 season. They brushed off a sellout crowd and a few second-half challenges.

''We've been in hostile environments and we've had success,'' Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said. ''The guys believe they can win. They actually feed off the energy. I thought we were really locked in the second half.''

Ole Miss made 15 of 21 shots in the second half, missing only once in six 3-point attempts. White made all five shots in the second half, when he and Moody scored 12 points apiece. Summers had 10 after the half.

Sebastian Saiz finished with 11 and Anthony Perez had 10.

Four starters for Auburn (11-12, 3-7) scored in double digits led by Antoine Mason's 23 points, including 17 in the second half.

KT Harrell made four 3-pointers and had 16 points for the Tigers. Cinmeon Bowers had 11 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists.

Tahj Shamsid-Deen added 13 points and Malcolm Canada 12.

''You can't give up 86 points and win,'' Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. ''You can't send an opponent to the foul line 38 times and win. You can't let an opponent shoot 71 percent in the second half and win.

''That's the story of the game.''

The nation's top free throw shooting team, Ole Miss went 10 of 12 from the line over the final 1:28 to keep the Tigers at bay.

''We didn't shoot free throws very well tonight,'' White said, ''but we made them when it counted.''

Moody fouled out on Shamsid-Deen's 3-point attempt with 58 seconds left. The Auburn guard made all three free throw attempts to make it 81-76 but the Rebels kept making their free throws, too.

Auburn had scored seven straight points to cut a nine-point deficit to 64-62 with 6:27 left.

White then hit a 3-pointer and Perez made two free throws to stretch the lead, and the Rebels held off a couple more challenges.

Ole Miss had pushed its lead to 60-51 with 9:31 left when Moody hit a pair of free throws after Auburn's Jordon Granger was called for a technical for shoving Anthony Perez.

Granger fouled out on the play.

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FREE THROWS

Ole Miss came into the game shooting 79.9 percent from the line. The Rebels made 8 of 14 in the first half but 20 of 24 in the second.

SPREE FROM THREE

Ten of Auburn's first 12 shots were 3-pointers, with Harrell accounting for three makes and Bowers a fourth during that stretch. Mason was fouled attempting another one and made all three free throws. Mason made the Tigers' first two-point basket midway through the opening half.

DOUBLE-DOUBLE

Bowers' 14th double-double was the most by an Auburn player since Jeff Moore matched that in 1986-87.

TIP-INS

Mississippi: Now 5-1 in SEC road games. Summers had seven assists and also made 7 of 10 free throws.

Auburn: Made 10 of 30 3-pointers and 23 of 34 free throws.

UP NEXT

Mississippi visits Florida on Thursday night.

Auburn hosts Arkansas on Tuesday night.