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Stefan Moody's game-saving three keeps Ole Miss on track

The first time Ole Miss sent star Stefan Moody off a high ball screen on its final possession Thursday night, Florida walled off his path to the basket and forced him to give the ball up.

Moody's second attempt was far more successful.

Given a second chance to create something after his teammates couldn't find enough daylight to attempt a shot, Moody curled around an M.J. Rhett top-of-the-key screen, pulled up from well behind the arc and buried a 3-pointer over guard Chris Chiozza's outstretched hands. The game-saving shot with 2.7 seconds left propelled Ole Miss to a 62-61 road victory over a Gators team enduring a rare down season.

Though marquee wins against elite competition are what stand out most on a team's resume, sometimes the road wins against solid-but-not-spectacular opponents are just as important. Emerging with a victory at Florida was one of those for Ole Miss, which is now 17-7 overall and tied for second place in the SEC with Arkansas at 8-3.

The Rebels certainly haven't sewn up an NCAA tournament bid, but they would make the field comfortably if the season ended today. They were No. 40 in the RPI entering and No. 32 in KenPom entering Thursday's game and they offset bad losses against Charleston Southern, TCU and Western Kentucky with quality wins over Cincinnati, Arkansas, Oregon and Texas A&M.

One of the biggest reasons life after Marshall Henderson has gone well for Ole Miss this season is the emergence of Moody as a go-to scoring threat. The 5-foot-10 junior college transfer has handled the jump in competition with ease, easing some of the pressure on fellow guard Jarvis Summers and averaging 15.5 points per game.

Neither Summers nor Moody have scored all that efficiently for Ole Miss this season, but the Rebels don't have to be perfect offensively to win. They are holding opponents to 39.1 percent shooting from the field so far this season.

Ole Miss now takes a six-game win streak into a big home game against Arkansas after sweeping a pair of games from Florida for the first time since 1990.

Neither of those count as marquee wins with the Gators just 12-11 overall, yet they're both important for the Rebels as they try to lock up an NCAA bid.

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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!