Ole Miss has the second-most experienced team in college basketball this season after coach Chris Beard hit the transfer portal hard and brought in plenty of experienced, accomplished defenders and scorers who are averaging 3.41 years in the game.

BYU has one of the least experienced teams in the country, ranking 170th in this category with an average of 1.7 years of experience.

That mismatch was made very clear in the final minutes of Thursday’s opening game at the Rady Children’s Hospital Invitational in San Diego, as the Rebels made all the big plays down the stretch and in overtime to cruise to a 96-85 victory in a pro-BYU crowd at LionTree Arena.

“We knew it was going to be a physical and tough game,” BYU coach Kevin Young told the BYU Sports Radio Network. “They are a well-coached team that is aiming for it. We had a chance to win there in the regular season and we kind of ran out of gas down the stretch.”

This game will be painful for BYU (5-1) for a while, as the team had a 75-71 lead and possession of the ball with less than two minutes to play. At least until Friday at 1:30 p.m. MST, when the Cougars face North Carolina State in the third-place game.

In the championship game, No. 23 Ole Miss will face No. 13 Purdue, which defeated the Wolfpack 71-61 in the other opening round game.

“We have to flush it,” Young said. “We got a quick turnaround. We will digest this shortly.”

Trevin Knell and Egor Demin scored three points around an Ole Miss jumper and the Cougars led by four points and were in great shape to take the win over their SEC foe when Dre Davis missed two free throws.

But Demin’s ill-advised pass with 1:55 left was deflected by Sean Pedulla and the Cougars were forced to foul on the other end to prevent a layup. After Richie Saunders missed a three-pointer, the Rebels equalized with an offensive rebound. Davis’ basket made it 75:75.

Saunders made two free throws with 38 seconds left to give the Cougars a 77-75 lead, but player of the game JuJu Murray made a layup over Saunders with 25 seconds left.

At the end of regulation time, the Cougars had a chance to win, but Fouss Traoré’s jumper wasn’t close after the Cougars’ resilient senior dominated the second half.

“We said one of the keys to the game was the battle for possession. They ended up up six or seven,” Young said. “That loss of the ball… was probably the game. It’s a shame and we have to learn from it and move on.”

BYU finished the game with 17 turnovers, which Ole Miss turned into 23 points. The Cougars converted nine Ole Miss giveaways into 13 points.

Essentially, Ole Miss increased the on-ball pressure and defensive physicality, and BYU didn’t respond in kind. The Rebels made 29 of 36 from the free throw line, BYU 21 of 26.

“Just the experience, the physicality and learning what it’s like (will help BYU in the future),” Young said. “When you got bigger and stronger, the athletes were underneath you and what that does to you. It speeds you up.

“We haven’t really been a high-volume team so far this year. And the first time we faced a physical defense, we turned it over 17 times. So we have to get better at that.”

BYU scored just one point on its first four possessions of overtime — on a Demin free throw — and that was it. Murray simply took over at Ole Miss and finished with 28 points, the highest point of his career.

BYU freshman Kanon Catchings was on fire early, going 4 of 4 from 3-point range, and the Cougars took a 35-25 lead with just under six minutes left in the first half.

Then BYU suffered a five-minute field goal drought that allowed Ole Miss to get back into the game. Turnovers also hurt the Cougars in the first half, as 10 BYU giveaways led to the Rebels having 18 points fewer turnovers in the first 20 minutes.

Mihailo Boskovic hit a three-pointer with a minute left in the half to give BYU a 42-39 lead at halftime. Although Ole Miss made five more field goals than BYU in the first half, the Cougars were able to take the lead by making 7 of 18 three-pointers and 11 of 12 from the free throw line.

Demin struggled in the first half, committing three turnovers and shooting 0 of 3 from distance. He played better in the second half and finished the game with 16 points, four assists and three rebounds. But when the Cougars really needed a big play in the final two minutes and first few minutes of overtime before the game got away from them, they had no candidate to advance.

It was similar to early in the second half, when BYU failed on its first three possessions and Ole Miss took a 59-52 lead with 10 minutes left.

“We kind of got away from who we were at the start of the second half when we were coming down and we had to kind of regroup our guys in a timeout and get back to playing the way we wanted to play,” Young said, noting that Demin and Dallin Hall played together for the first time this season after Hall returned from a toe injury just last week.

“We are a work in progress. I look forward to seeing our guys’ response tomorrow,” concluded Young.