The Ole Miss men’s basketball team wasn’t letting this night slip away. The Rebels (20-9, 8-7) kept their NCAA tournament hopes alive on senior night with a 72-60 win against LSU (10-19, 1-14). Junior guard Bo Spencer led the Tigers with 20 points, and senior forward Tasmin Mitchell added 11 points and 13 rebounds in the loss. Oppositely, the Rebels saw a more balanced offensive performance. Junior guard Chris Warren scored 21 points to lead the Rebels, while junior guard Zach Graham scored 14 points, sophomore guard Terrico White logged 13 points and sophomore forward Murphy Holloway contributed 12 points. “Bottom line is we were in a position where we had a chance and the ball didn’t go down for us,” LSU coach Trent Johnson said in a postgame radio interview. “When you give up 72 points on the road to a team like this considering what they had to play for, we did a good job of extending them. It is what it is.”The play of freshmen Eddie Ludwig and Aaron Dotson also encouraged Johnson. Ludwig scored nine points and nabbed six rebounds, while Dotson scored seven points. “They both did a decent job,” Johnson said. “Better late than never.”LSU had its chances. The Tigers fought back from an eight-point deficit to tie the game at 47 with 11:26 to play. The teams traded baskets before Ole Miss, behind Warren and White, opened up a seven-point lead. LSU closed the gap to two with 6:37 left but never got any closer.”They’re really talented,” Johnson said. “Really skilled. They have very good perimeter players, and their posts are good passers. We got the thing tied up, I think we went up one, we got some good looks from our best player, but unfortunately they didn’t go down.”Johnson was referring to Mitchell. Mitchell’s 11 points pull him within 41 points of scoring 2,000 points for his career. He would become the third player in school history to do so.Johnson sensed some nerves in Mitchell.”I think he’s tightening up a little bit, trying to do too much,” Johnson said. “He can see this thing winding down. I got to get him to relax and get him shooting the ball like he’s capable of shooting it. He had three jump shots here wide open on the baseline that usually go down from 15 feet, and you could just see him pressing.”Mitchell will have to rebound from his last two contests to reach the hallowed mark. The Denham Springs native now has two guaranteed games to achieve the feat.Mitchell and the rest of the Tigers don’t have much time to relax. Georgia (13-15, 5-10) travels to Baton Rouge on Saturday to face the Tigers on senior night.”Out of all the things I want to accomplish throughout this year … is hopefully our fans will want to come out and see Tasmin play his last game,” Johnson said. “He deserves the Pete Maravich Assembly Center to be full and have people cheering for him.”Mitchell said Monday he wants nothing more than to win his final game in the PMAC. “I expect for us to come out with a victory,” Mitchell said. “Nothing less. I just want to come out and play one good last game for my hometown fans and the people who supported me throughout my career here.”____Contact Chris Branch at [email protected]