Most questions about whether Chris Beard’s first Ole Miss basketball team was talented enough to achieve its goals faded into the background by the new year.

The more important questions, it turned out, revolved around whether the Rebels could do the hard work in the margins to support that talent.

Ole Miss did exactly that on Saturday against Texas A&M, one of the most physical teams in college basketball. And the Rebels (17-3, 4-3 SEC) were rewarded with a valuable 71-68 road victory – their first in conference play.

The decisive Ole Miss run came with 3:29 to play. Trailing by seven, the Rebels scored the next nine points to take the lead on a Matthew Murrell jumper. The Aggies answered on the next possession before Jaylen Murray drilled the eventual game-winning 3-pointer from well beyond the arc with 22 seconds to go.

That gave the Rebels the scoring punch they needed behind a determined effort elsewhere.

An Ole Miss team that has consistently failed to rebound effectively, especially against quality opposition, wasn't overwhelmed by the Aggies (12-8, 3-4), who entered Saturday as the nation’s top offensive-rebounding team. Ole Miss allowed 18 offensive rebounds but snagged 13 of its own. And a group of Rebels that has dropped defensive stinker after defensive stinker on the road held Texas A&M to 39.7% from the field.

"The one stat that doesn't show up on the stat sheet is heart and poise and togetherness and just fight," Beard said. "I told the guys at halftime that this isn't a stat sheet game, man. It's just, every possession, you go out there and fight and scrap. You're playing against a really good team. So I'm just proud of our players."

Ole Miss’ feeble efforts on defense and the glass against Auburn and Tennessee were some of the worst showings by one of Beard’s teams in his career as a power conference coach. After holding Arkansas to 51 points on Wednesday and limiting the Aggies, the Rebels showed themselves to be capable of the type of defense that has historically driven Beard’s coaching success.

Ole Miss basketball closes first half well, starts second frame strong to set the stage

The Rebels started a run that changed the course of the game with less than four minutes left in the first half.

They trailed by nine points, and looked to be in danger of getting blown out. Then the stops started coming.

The Aggies endured empty possession after empty possession as the Rebels trimmed the lead. All they’d get in the half’s final three minutes were two free throws by Solomon Washington.

Having gone without a bucket for the duration of the half, Murrell drilled a 3-pointer with a man in his face at the buzzer to send Ole Miss into the halftime locker room with a 31-29 lead.

The Rebels scored 10 of the first 12 points in the second half, too, opening up a 10-point lead. The Aggies quickly responded with a run that made Murray's late heroics necessary.

"The first four minutes of the second half was the biggest segment for us," Beard said.

Rebels have a strong night from beyond the arc to help make the difference

Murrell’s wasn’t the only big triple the Rebels would get.

After the Aggies went ahead 51-48 past the midway point of the second half, backup point guard Austin Nuñez rose up from the right corner and found nylon to quickly tie the game back up. Then came Murray’s pull-up triple in the final moments.

All told, the Rebels cashed in on 10 of their 24 3-point attempts.

Alongside their recent defensive problems away from the SJB Pavilion, the Rebels have not delivered many quality shooting performances on the road of late.

They got what they needed on Saturday. Murray scored 12 of his 16 points from beyond the arc to pace Ole Miss, and help offset 30 points from the Aggies' Wade Taylor IV.

David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.

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This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: How Ole Miss basketball came back to secure statement Texas A&M win