Ole Miss Women’s Basketball split their two recent games against Arkansas at home on Feb. 12 and Kentucky on the road on Feb. 15. They crushed the Razorbacks, but had a poor outing against the Wildcats. On the season, they are now 20-6 overall and 7-4 in SEC play.
Arkansas
The No. 14-ranked Lady Rebels returned to the Sandy and John Black Pavilion for their first home game since Jan. 11 for a matchup against the unranked Arkansas Razorbacks. The Rebels secured a 80-57 win to remain unbeaten at home.
Latasha Lattimore and Christeen Iwuala made the first baskets for the Rebels to kickstart the offense, but Arkansas answered right back. After a brief back-and-forth game in the first two minutes, the Rebels found their groove and went on a 13-3 run.
While on that run, senior Debreasha Powe made a three point basket and reached the 1,000-career point milestone.
The pace of the Rebels offense slowed in the second quarter and the Rebels only managed to score 14 points and shoot 29% from the field. Cotie McMahon sunk the Rebels’ final layup of the second quarter to bring the Rebels to the half with a 40-27 lead over the Razorbacks.
Back from the half, Arkansas could not seem to catch a break and missed five shots in a row despite many open looks at the 3-point line. After an overhaul of their roster with subs, the Razorbacks made their first third quarter bucket after nearly five minutes of play.
Arkansas’ offensive struggles were in large part thanks to a good defensive game from the Rebels, particularly Lattimore. Lattimore ended the game with three steals and five blocks for the Rebels.
However, with three minutes left in the third quarter, Lattimore’s aggressive style of play caused her to get into a scuffle when she attempted to secure a rebound. After a play review, the foul was upgraded to a flagrant and Lattimore went to the bench.
Without Lattimore, other Rebels had to step up, but it was not enough to stop Arkansas from a 6-0 run to close out the third quarter.
To start the fourth quarter, the Rebels made slow but steady progress towards their win.
With five minutes left in the game, momentum shifted heavily towards the Rebels. Arkansas turned towards the three point game in an attempt to catch up to no success.
McMahon ended the game with a team leading 21 points, and Lattimore added a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds to secure the 80-57 win over the Razorbacks.
A large key to the Rebel victory was their ability to capitalize off Razorback turnovers. Arkansas committed 18 total turnovers. The Rebels scored 23 points off turnovers.
Although the Rebels won, they did not always look smooth. Arkansas was quick on the court with a much faster paced offense than the Rebels. Thankfully, the Razorbacks were not able to sink many of the breakaway baskets they attempted, but this could pose a problem in the future when the Rebels face another fast paced team.
Ole Miss Women’s Basketball head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin echoed that statement in the postgame press conference.
“For me, it seemed like we were still kind of tired. I thought we could have played with a little bit more enthusiasm,” McPhee-McCuin said. “I’m just telling you, that road was tough, but we’re getting ready to embrace a tough road.”
Kentucky
Ole Miss Women’s Basketball took a hard loss to No. 18 Kentucky on the road 74-57.
The Lady Rebels opened up hot against the Wildcats when Lattimore scored the first points of the game with a layup. The Lady Rebels also had good perimeter defense to start.
However, Kentucky consistently beat Ole Miss in the paint, allowing them to take an early 8-4 lead.
Ole Miss was playing extremely physically, both on offense and defense. While it was initially effective, it began leading to missed shots and turnovers.
The Lady Rebels were unable to figure out the offense early. While they struggled offensively, they could also not stop Kentucky in the paint (5-of-8). However, towards the end of the first quarter, Ole Miss began to figure it out.
To open up the second quarter, Kentucky was hot, scoring nine points in the first minute and a half before McPhee-McCuin was forced to take a timeout to make some adjustments.
Kentucky was moving full throttle in the second quarter, shooting 6-of-12 from three and going on a 19-0 run.
After the run by Kentucky, Ole Miss trailed by more than 20. The Lady Rebels also missed 15 straight field goals, which allowed Kentucky to take a 19-point lead going into the half.
Kentucky turned it over on their first possession of the second half, which led to a second-chance 3-pointer by McMahon. Marking Ole Miss’ first field goal since the beginning of the second quarter.
Ole Miss started the third quarter with five unanswered points. Neither Kentucky or Ole Miss were able to outperform one another deep into the third quarter, which allowed Kentucky to maintain a confident 15-point lead.
Ole Miss’ perimeter defense was weak and allowed Kentucky to continuously drop triples from deep or in the face of defenders. While they were able to get shots up, Ole Miss could not get the ball through the net.
Nothing changed in the fourth quarter. Ole Miss and Kentucky continued to trade shots until the Wildcats started to pull away late into the quarter due to poor Rebel paint defense.
Ole Miss lost this game because of a lack of discipline. They simply did not play with purpose. They ended too many defensive possessions with a foul or an easy layup.
What’s next?
The Lady Rebels will welcome the No. 22 Tennessee Volunteers to Oxford this Tuesday at 6 p.m. ESPNU will broadcast the game.
