Ole Miss Falls to No. 24 Florida in Gainesville

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP)- Senior Sebastian Saiz posted his fifth straight double-double with 15 points and 13 boards, but Ole Miss dropped a SEC road contest 70-63 at No. 24 Florida Tuesday.

Overcoming a cold shooting start, the Gators built a 19-point lead that the Rebels only managed to get to single digits twice in the second half.

Deandre Burnett’s 3-pointer cut Florida’s big lead to 42-34 with 14:18 remaining. The Gators (11-3, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) responded with an 11-0 spurt that essentially put the game away.

Ole Miss made another run, making it 69-63 on Burnett’s driving layup with 20.1 seconds remaining. But it was too little, too late — even with Kasey Hill missing four consecutive free throws and Chris Chiozza clanging another.

Ole Miss (9-5, 0-2) had even more ball-security issues. The Rebels turned it over 14 times in the first 17 minutes and finished with 21, their most since the season opener against Tennessee-Martin.

Ole Miss may have had the toughest start possible in league play. Coming off a lopsided home loss to No. 6 Kentucky, the Rebels traveled to Florida and now are winless in two games.

Burnett led the Rebels with 18 points. Sebastian Saiz added 15 points and 13 rebounds.

Coming off arguably the toughest two-game start to SEC play, Ole Miss travels to Auburn on Saturday. The Tigers are 6-1 at home this season.