Ole Miss couldn’t buy a bucket at Auburn. It’s becoming a recurring (road) problem.

Ole Miss has been a good offensive basketball team for most of its games in the 2023-24 season.

As a result, the Rebels have won 15 of 18, including each of their first 13 to match the program’s best-ever start and winning streak.

But they’ve had some real clunkers, too, especially on the road and as they’ve embarked on the always-grueling SEC slate. Ole Miss face-planted Saturday at Auburn in the first-ever meeting between the teams when both were ranked inside the Top 25.

Ole Miss entered play Top 12 nationally in three-point efficiency (39 percent). But Auburn and its stout defense, which ranks Top 50 in a number of statistical categories, held the Rebels to 4 for 17 (23.5 percent) from deep.

Auburn transfer Allen Flanigan was the only Rebel to score in double figures.

Flanigan is Ole Miss’ second-leading scorer. Points leader Matthew Murrell was one of three Rebels to score eight but made just 3 of 8 from the field. He missed both of his threes.

“The Flanigan family’s a lot of things, but nervous isn’t one of them,” Ole Miss first-year head coach Chris Beard said in his postgame press conference. “I’ve been a part of a couple of these in my career. Obviously a lot of emotion. I give Auburn credit. They were emotionally attached to this game. We were, too. Our guys came to play, and I thought we had a great plan. We didn’t execute it well at all, obviously.

“It wasn’t like our guys showed up and weren’t ready to play. We were. Auburn played great. To start the game, the basket was huge for them. When we finally started settling down and getting some stops, it’s just those runs that you get here. The home-court advantage they have here contributes to those runs.”

Ole Miss has now set a new season-low in points in two of its three SEC losses.

Auburn held the Rebels to 59 points, but a few weeks after Tennessee limited the Rebels to 64 in a 30-point rout on Rocky Top. Ole Miss had a season-high 17 turnovers against the Tigers.

The Rebels finished the week winless (0-2) after a similarly underwhelming road performance at LSU on Wednesday.

“We’ve got to stay the course,” Beard said. “We’ve been a good offensive team in a lot of our games this year. It starts with taking care of the ball. Doesn’t matter what kind of defense you’re playing against or what your offense is doing or not doing, if you hand the ball to the other team and don’t get a shot on goal, there is no offense. Ball security wasn’t where we like it to be.”

Auburn, with the win, picked up its ninth in its last 10 home games against ranked teams. The Tigers are 7-1 in home Top 25 matchups since 2010. They’re averaging a 22-point margin of victory in those games.

Ole Miss next hosts Arkansas.

The Rebels and Razorbacks tip off Wednesday at 8 p.m. CT — in what has now become critical, resume-building opportunity for a pair of postseason hopefuls. Ole Miss has been to the NCAA Tournament just nine times in its 100-plus-year history. Beard is aiming to make the Rebels the fourth separate team he’s taken dancing since 2016.

“We’ve got to take care of the ball,” Beard said. “Offensively, we had too many possessions (at Auburn) where we were just kind of standing around . It was a low-possession game. With their full-court pressure, you don’t normally get the number of possessions you normally get other games.

“So, in those (high-profile) games (like Tennessee and Auburn), just a high priority to try and have great offensive possessions and we did not early.”

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