OXFORD | North Alabama defeated Ole Miss, 66-65, at the Sandy and John Black Pavilion on Tuesday afternoon.

North Alabama guard KJ Johnson hit the game-winning basket with 15 seconds remaining. North Alabama, which entered the game with a NET rating in the 270s, improved to 8-5.

Junior Ole Miss guard Matthew Murrell led Ole Miss in scoring with 16 points. Ole Miss closed as a 22.5 point favorite in the contest.

“Give North Alabama all of the credit,” Ole Miss head coach Kermit Davis said. “Any time I turned on the tape they had a great physicalness and presence about them. It was no different today. We couldn’t stop any dribble penetration and that’s what got us in the end. Not a great game day practice today, so you could see it coming. I take full responsibility but give North Alabama credit.”

Ole Miss (8-5) was able to build a 10-point lead in the first half, but allowed the lead to dwindle to two by halftime. Ole Miss turned the ball over 15 times and missed seven free throws for the afternoon.

“I didn’t think our ball movement was great,” Davis said. “We really struggled scoring around the goal. Our bigs are really struggling around the goal finishing balls, they’re trying their tails off. They’re getting the offensive rebounds but really besides Myles nobody finished any balls around the rim. We’re struggling with that. We’ve got to find another couple of three point shooters. We’re still trying to find our way.”

Ole Miss shot just 39 percent from the field and 29 percent from 3-point range but still had a late one-point lead after a layup from Daeshun Ruffin with 34 seconds remaining

“We had the game up one with a chance to close it out and we just couldn’t,” Davis said. “So it won’t be nearly as merry of a Christmas as we would’ve liked around here for sure.”

Ole Miss returns to action on Dec. 28 at the Sandy in Oxford for its Southeastern Conference opener against No. 8 Tennessee.