Coming into Sunday’s matchup with No. 7 Mississippi State, Ole Miss Women’s Basketball had won two of its last three games, including a 6-point victory over then-No.16 Kentucky in Lexington on Jan. 13. The Rebels were looking to bounce back after a loss at Vanderbilt on Thursday, but that redemption did not come against their in-state rival.
Mississippi State began to control the game just minutes after tipoff and would thoroughly dominate Ole Miss en route to an 80-49 win in the women’s basketball Egg Bowl.
Early on, it seemed as if Ole Miss would be able to compete with the Bulldogs. The Rebels got on the board first with a La’Karis Salter layup to go up 2-0. Salter would hit another 3-pointer to give Ole Miss a 5-2 lead, followed by a Shandricka Sessom three to go up 8-6.
“Definitely was excited to be a part of a rivalry,” head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin told reporters after the game. “This was my first experience here. It was an incredible environment.”
Ole Miss hit first, but unfortunately for McPhee-McCuin and her squad, Mississippi State hit harder. Sessom’s 3-pointer in the first quarter would be her only points of the night, as she went 1-for-6 from the field.
After Sessom’s three, the wheels started to fall off for the Rebels. Mississippi State would go on a quick 9-point run, which was followed up with runs of 5 and 14 points that gave the Bulldogs a 21-point lead heading into the half.
Facing a 21-point deficit against the No. 7-ranked team in the country with a half to play isn’t a position any coach wants to be in. However, McPhee-McCuin’s team responded to their coach in the final two quarters.
“I feel like people misconstrue what a rivalry is like,” McPhee-McCuin said. “Obviously, it is lopsided right now, but a rivalry is not about hating the other team. The rivalry is about having pride and loving your university. I wanted our young women to start to see and feel like they belong and they deserve to be there and to compete.”
Although Ole Miss lost by 10 in the second half, the Rebels amped up their play defensively. Mississippi State shot just 36 percent from the field in the second half, down from 51 percent in the first.
Rebounding is another area in which Ole Miss struggled in the first half. The Rebels gathered just 10 boards in the first 20 minutes, but they upped that number to 17 in the second half, grabbing five offensive rebounds that led to 7 second-chance points, compared to only 3 in the first.
These numbers may seem underwhelming and insignificant in terms of improvement, but when facing the No. 7 team in the country with a group of players that McPhee-McCuin assembled in the few months before the season began, even marginal improvement is welcome.
“I thought that my team played their hearts out, and there was a lot that I feel we can build on,” McPhee-McCuin said. “For us and where we are trying to go, I thought this was a step forward.”
Ole Miss returns to Oxford with a challenging two-game homestand on the horizon. Auburn comes to town on Wednesday, followed by a matchup with No. 24 Texas A&M on Sunday.
