Mississippi State called Moussa Cisse soft. Ole Miss paid the price.

Memphis basketball—just a week after getting trounced in its own building by No. 19 Mississippi State—did the same to No. 16 Ole Miss with a 87-70 victory at FedExForum Saturday afternoon.

The main reason, according to Rebels coach Chris Beard, is that the Tigers were simply the more “emotionally attached” team. Memphis headman Penny Hardaway couldn’t agree more.

“That was absolutely true,” Hardaway told reporters postgame. “It was true, because we had a chip on our shoulders for how we played last week. Mississippi State is a damn good team, and to go out there and not fight—they embarrassed us…We knew that we couldn’t let Ole Miss come in here and do the same thing that Mississippi State had done.”

Hardaway made sure to stamp that message home behind closed doors this week, even with new Tiger Dante Harris undergoing his first reps with the team. The seventh-year coach said he put Memphis through its hardest practices of the season.

The Tigers, according to Hardaway, were all-go from the moment they returned from Christmas break Wednesday night.

“We ran and ran and ran like the old school coaches used to do us. It could’ve been punishment running, because I just wasn’t gonna have anything other than us being in shape [and] ready to run. It was all about hitting and physicality this week. It was nothing easy. If it was something easy, guys got kicked off the floor and we started over…There was some choice words all week for a lot of guys getting ready for this game,” he said. “They were looking [at me] like I was crazy, because they don’t really see that [side of me]…They were definitely shocked, but they understood why. They knew I was on edge. If you ask [any] one of those guys, they’ll say, ‘He was different this week.'”

It wasn’t a PlayStation 5 delivered in holiday-themed wrapping paper, but it turned out to be the Christmas gift Memphis needed most.

The Tigers jumped on the Rebels early. Outside of a 22-11 Ole Miss run to end the first half, Memphis remained in control the entire way and ultimately led wire-to-wire. It recorded a season-high in rebounds (45), held Beard’s club to 36% shooting and blocked nine shots for the second time this year.

Colby Rogers, who shot 1-for-19 against Virginia and Mississippi State, scored a season-high 28 points while shooting 10-for-16 overall and 6-of-9 from 3-point range. PJ Haggerty had another tremendous outing with 17 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists and a steal. Dain Dainja totaled 16 points, 3 rebounds, 2 blocks and a steal on 6-for-7 shooting despite committing 4 personal fouls. Nick Jourdain recorded 8 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 blocks. Memphis didn’t even need a big game from Tyrese Hunter, who scored 4 points.

But Moussa Cisse—a former Ole Miss Rebel—arguably made the biggest individual impact Saturday. The 6-foot-11 center began the contest with a bang after slamming in a Haggerty lob in the opening minute. The Rebels didn’t have much of an answer for him afterwards.

Cisse imposed his will the entire afternoon, and earned his first double-double in two seasons with 13 points, 11 rebounds, 3 blocks and a steal. It’s easy to guess why the fifth-year senior had extra motivation for this matchup. Revenge games usually bring that out in players.

That had little to do with Cisse’s drive, however. The Tigers’ loss to Mississippi State truly set his anger ablaze, since Bulldog players called him and his team something he’d never been called before.

“We got called soft. Coach got on everybody. I feel like he got on me more. I really took that personal when they called us soft,” Cisse said. “I was just physical. Ain’t nobody gonna call me soft again.”

There’s a reason the Conakry, Guinea native is so ticked off about being called soft. After all, his upbringing was quite the opposite. He watched his late mother drag herself to work every day in his youth. Same thing with his sisters and the rest of his family.

It’s important to Cisse that he follows suit.

“I’m a competitor,” he said. “So, somebody calling me soft—that’s kinda disrespectful to me. I take that with heart. So, too bad that we had to see them, but the next team’s gonna pay for that.”

Memphis’ win over Ole Miss snapped what would’ve been its first three-game losing streak at home since 2017-18. One of the Tigers’ two home losses this season came against Quad 3 opponent Arkansas State. Memphis also survived a tough test against Louisiana Tech on Dec. 4, which was another potential Quad 3 defeat.

The Tigers now shift from the hunters to the hunted for good as they begin their American Athletic Conference (AAC) schedule at Florida Atlantic on Thursday (6 p.m., ESPN2). Memphis’ conference slate includes 14 projected Quad 3 and 4 games. The other four contests are against projected Quad 2 opponents.

Memphis, which now owns eight Quad 1 and 2 wins (No. 1 in Division I), faltered under similar circumstances last season. Hardaway knows this year’s team can’t do the same if he’s to return to the NCAA Tournament come March.

He just hopes the few days of his bad-cop act does the trick.

“We can’t fall back now because we’re done with the non-conference, because it’s gonna get even tougher. Everybody’s expecting for us to win every game, so every game now is a big game. We can’t lose our fight ever again.” Hardaway said. “We’re gonna be the hunted. We’ve shown when we’re the hunted that we’ll not play as hard as we need to, because we think we’re just gonna win the game. Well, that mindset has to change. They’re not gonna give us anything. We have to take everything every game.”