After a 34-point shellacking by the No. 12 South Carolina Gamecocks this past Thursday, the Ole Miss women’s basketball team returns to The Pavilion tonight for a Valentine’s Day showdown.
Ole Miss hosts the Vanderbilt Commodores, one of two teams currently below the Rebels in the SEC standings — the other team being the Florida Gators. The Commodores did, however, defeat the Rebels in Nashville two weeks ago with a final score of 80-68. Vanderbilt used a 14-0 run in the second quarter and never looked back.
Going into this matchup, Vanderbilt has lost four straight games since the aforementioned victory over Ole Miss. The team hasn’t been able to duplicate that kind of offensive success since that game.
The majority of their offense comes from Mariella Fasoula. She averages 15.6 points per game and is a force in the paint with her 6-foot-5-inch frame. Cierra Walker is another player to keep an eye on as one of the team’s best three-point shooters. This kind of tandem could be dangerous yet again for the Rebels. Ole Miss will look to execute their zone defense to the max in order to have a chance to win down the stretch.
In the previous meeting, the Rebels had few answers for Fasoula, who finished the game with 19 points while shooting 7 of 8 from the field and grabbing nine rebounds. As a team, Vanderbilt shot 50 percent from the field.
As of late, the Rebels have struggled mightily in the third quarter. They have been outscored 64-21 in the previous three games against Auburn, Texas A&M and South Carolina. Ole Miss has been the victim of a few long runs in those games. Look for the Rebels to try to settle down if a big play is given up or if things do not go their way over a series or two.
The Rebels have relied on a few key players to carry the scoring load the past few outings, particularly Crystal Allen, Shandricka Sessom and La’Karis Salter. That has been an issue recently, according to McPhee-McCuin.
“My group is always looking for someone else to do it instead of understanding that they all have to do it together,” McPhee-McCuin said. “That is something we are going to have to build on.”
In recent games, Allen has been ordered to start the game on the bench to mess with the other team’s game plan. It will be interesting to see if this pattern continues and forces Vanderbilt to change things defensively.
