OXFORD — A colleague texted me during the second half of Ole Miss’ clash with Memphis Saturday afternoon.

“Chris Beard: Elite hire,” he wrote.

That was before Ole Miss finished a comeback to claim an 80-77 win over Penny Hardaway’s Tigers in front of a raucous crowd at the Sandy and John Black Pavilion.

Ole Miss, now 7-0, trailed by 11 early in the second half. Allen Flanigan, the Rebels’ most reliable scorer so far this season, had three fouls and was relegated to the bench.

The Rebels didn’t panic or let Memphis (5-2) knock them out. Instead, Ole Miss chipped away and eventually erased the Tigers’ advantage.

Jaylen Murray’s layup with 17.5 seconds remaining gave Ole Miss a 79-77 lead. Jahvon Quinerly’s shot on Memphis’ ensuing possession missed. Jaemyn Brakefield, who had struggled all day offensively after scoring 25 points earlier in the week in a win over North Carolina State, grabbed the rebound and was fouled with 6.6 seconds to play.

Brakefield missed the first throw but made the second, and the Rebels’ final defensive possession was perfect, forcing a wild 3-point attempt from Quinerly that was nowhere close to hitting iron.

Murray had a team-high 22 points and nine assists, compared to just one turnover, playing all but 21 seconds Saturday.

“They told me that if I’m the better guard, my team is going to win,” Murray said.

As for the final stops, Murray said, “That was really the only way we were going to win. We weren’t going to win going back and forth. At some point, we had to get over the hump and get a stop and come down and score and then get a stop again. That’s something we work on a lot in practice.”

Ole Miss trailed by seven at halftime but never was behind by more than four points down the stretch. Flanigan, Brakefield, Matthew Murrell and Murray all hit critical buckets in the final minutes. The Rebels never flinched against a Memphis team that has wins over Missouri, Michigan and Arkansas already on its resume.

Beard said the Rebels just kept putting process over outcome.

“We’re not playing the scoreboard,” Beard said. “We’re playing Ole Miss basketball. We’ve got 10 four-minute games. We’ve got to hold our own in a few and win more than they win and we can’t get knocked out in any. We almost took a couple of knockout punches in the first half in some of those four-minute games but we stayed the course. It’s a long game. It’s a long season. We can’t get too high or too low.”

Murrell hit six of seven 3-pointers and added 20 points and six rebounds. Flanigan added 18 points despite playing fewer than 28 minutes.

David Jones led Memphis with 22 points, though he didn’t take a field goal in the final 5:50. Malcolm Dandridge had 13 points and four rebounds.

Ole Miss held Memphis to 16.7 percent percent from the floor, an “elite” performance in that category, Beard said. The Rebels held their own on the boards, losing that battle, 42-39. Memphis out-scored the Rebels, 50-30, in the paint and 35-9 off the bench.

Still, Ole Miss persevered and won. Former Memphis center Moussa Cisse made his Ole Miss debut, scoring two points and grabbing five rebounds in 15 minutes.

“He impacted the game in the role he had,” Beard said. “He’s just going to keep getting better.”

For Ole Miss, Saturday was more big-picture than it was about a KenPom top-100 win.

“Special day in Oxford,” Beard said. “We have no plan other than knowing we’ve gotta have a home-court advantage here to compete in the SEC to build this program to a point where we’ll all like it. Today was another great step in the right direction.

“It got loud a few times in there where we couldn’t hear each other and that’s a great sign to be in those situations at home.”

Ole Miss entertains Mount Saint Mary’s Tuesday at 7 p.m.