Ole Miss had chances in the final minute but fell short in its regular season finale Saturday, dropping a 63-61 decision to Vanderbilt.

Trailing by that margin, Matthew Murrell’s 3-point attempt in the final 15 seconds rimmed out. Vanderbilt’s Scottie Pippen Jr. got the rebound, was fouled and missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw.

Ole Miss freshman guard James White got a potential game-tying shot in the final seconds but hit nothing but air.

“We tried to run a set play for Matt at the end and they did a good job of guarding him,” Ole Miss coach Kermit Davis said. “We came back, missed the ball screen there. …At the end, we came down and drove it, tried to get it to the rim. It was a play with no timeouts and they did a good job contesting.”

Vanderbilt finished the regular season 15-15 overall and 7-11 in the Southeastern Conference. Ole Miss finished the regular season 13-18 overall and 4-14 in the SEC.

Ole Miss led by as many as 10 points in the first half and took a seven-point advantage into halftime. Vanderbilt, however, took advantage of one of the Rebels’ Achilles heals and jumped on a sluggish Ole Miss team out of intermission. The Commodores led by seven with 4:21 left before Murrell got hot. Five straight points for the Ole Miss sophomore guard cut Vanderbilt’s lead to 60-58.

Liam Robbins dunk and subsequent free throw extended the Commodores’ lead back to five points with 1:53 left. After a pair of empty possessions, Murrell knocked down a 3-pointer from 25 feet out to pull Ole Miss to within 63-61 with 53.2 seconds left, setting up the scoreless final stanza.

“We were up, shooting a good percentage and we were only up seven at the half,” Davis said. “We were still up seven. We were trying to build but our start of the second half has kind of been our biggest thing all year. We’ve tried to do things to help us get better in the first five minutes of the second half.”

Murrell and Austin Crowley led Ole Miss with 15 points each. Nysier Brooks added 12 points for the Rebels.

Pippen had a game-high 22 points for Vanderbilt. Jordan Wright added 14 and Robbins had 12.

Both teams shot 42 percent from the floor. Ole Miss was just 5-for-20 from the 3-point line, compared to Vanderbilt’s 9-for-24. Vanderbilt won the rebounding battle, 35-33. Ole Miss won bench points and points in the paint, as well as doubling Vanderbilt in fast-break points.

Ole Miss will face Missouri Wednesday in the SEC Tournament in Tampa, Fla. Should the Rebels win, they’ll meet LSU on Thursday night. Missouri, Ole Miss and LSU are grouped with fourth-seeded Arkansas, who will await the survivor of that trio on Friday.

Ole Miss has lost twice to Missouri already this season.

“We’re going to try to get hot and try to go win multiple games in the tournament, which we could do,” Davis said.