Jeff Hart

It seems pretty simple to Mississippi coach Andy Kennedy: Build a lead, then keep it. Yet the No. 16 Rebels struggled to hold a lead late for the second straight game Saturday. This time, though, Ole Miss won, beating LSU 74-71 on Saturday three days after falling to No. 8 Tennessee in the final seconds.

Freshman Terrence Oglesby hit three of his six 3-pointers in the second overtime as No. 18 Clemson ended a two-game losing streak with a 97-85 victory over Florida State on Saturday night.

JaJuan Smith scored 15 points to lead Tennessee to a 80-56 win over South Carolina on Saturday night.

Ronnell Wooten scored 17 points and Shaun Stegall added 16 to lead Kennesaw State to an 80-59 victory over North Florida on Saturday night.

Gainesville native Jamarco Warren hit eight 3-points and finished with 26 points but it was not enough to lift Charleston Southern past VMI Saturday.

In the midst of a stretch of seven of 10 games on the road, Georgia Tech resumes Atlantic Coast Conference play Saturday with a 2 p.m. visit to 25th-ranked Miami at the BankUnited Center.

Georgia tips off its annual 16-game SEC schedule with a Saturday afternoon game at Mississippi State. The visiting Bulldogs arrive with a 9-4 overall record. Most recently, they concluded their pre-conference schedule with a 79-72 win over in-state rival Georgia Tech in Athens three nights ago.

A few more games like Friday

Both the West Hall and Flowery Branch girls basketball teams were looking for a confidence builder Tuesday night as they opened their Region 7B-AAA schedules. But it was the Lady Spartans who left the West Hall gym with a 45-39 win and a jumpstart in the tough subregion schedule. The Flowery Branch boys earned the split with an 80-71 win over the Spartans.

A team still getting to know each other, the Buford boys basketball team may have the catalyst it was looking for to get its season going. The Wolves blew one lead and rallied from others in the two second half Saturday night to knock off North Hall 54-51 on the road in a game that neither will claim they taped for future reference.