The No. 19 Ole Miss Women’s Basketball team lost its last two games of regular season. On Feb. 26, the Lady Rebels traveled to Gainesville, Fla., and lost to the Gators 74-67. On March 1, they returned home for senior day to face Texas A&M but were defeated 66-58. Their losing streak extended to four games.
Florida
Ole Miss dropped their penultimate regular season game to Florida 74-67. Ole Miss guard Tianna Thompson led the team with 25 points and shot 7-of-11 from three. Guard Sira Thienou did not play.
The first half was a back-and-forth battle. There were eight lead changes; the largest lead held by either team was seven points (Ole Miss leading), but this did not last long. The Gators limited Ole Miss to just 10 points in the paint, which is where the Lady Rebels typically score most of their points.
In response, Thompson fired 3-pointers. She drained four of them — which is considerable, considering that the Lady Rebels only averaged five 3-pointers per game entering the contest. She finished the half with 14 points.
Forward Latasha Lattimore had a sneaky good half with seven rebounds and a block. Still, the Lady Rebels trailed at the half, 40-37.
In the third quarter, the Lady Rebels struggled offensively. Their first field goal of the second half was a 3-pointer by forward Cotie McMahon halfway through the quarter. They were also unable to get stops defensively.
To make matters worse, Lattimore exited the game with a possible injury after a Florida player fell on her leg in the middle of the quarter. This loss hurt, especially considering Thienou was already out with injury.
After the third quarter, the Lady Rebels trailed 55-50. Forward Christeen Iwuala scored eight points in the quarter.
The Gators held onto their lead in the fourth quarter and won, 74-67. Florida guard Liv McGill scored 26 points. This was the Gators’ first ranked win of the season.
In a postgame press conference, head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin lauded Thompson for this performance but was disappointed that the team still lost.
“I thought Tianna (Thompson) did well. I thought she came out and competed. She’s the future of the program,” McPhee-McCuin said. “At the end of the day, things that we do out here have to impact winning, and so if I know Tianna (Thompson), she’s not excited about scoring 25 points and us losing, so we have to figure out a way to win.”
McPhee-McCuin also said that the key to getting back in the win column will be to return to their identity as a defensive team.
“We used to be a defensive team, and because we’ve been scoring a lot of points, we’ve really (gotten) excited about that,” McPhee-McCuin said. “That’s just not our identity, and it can’t be our identity right now because we have so many people that are out.”
Texas A&M
Ole Miss Women’s Basketball returned home for senior day against Texas A&M and lost their fourth-straight game, 66-58. McMahon led the team with 19 points.
Ole Miss spent the entire first quarter in a lull. The Aggies went on a 7-0 run, and the Lady Rebels remained down the rest of the quarter.
The Aggies put up 23 points on 64% shooting in the first quarter. They played well defensively, too, limiting the Lady Rebels to 13 points on only five made field goals.
In the second quarter, the Lady Rebels came out firing. Guard Debreasha Powe made a 3-pointer to kick off the quarter, followed by back-to-back threes by Thompson.
Still, their 11-of-26 shooting from the field left something to be desired. Though they outscored the Aggies 17-14 in the quarter, they still trailed at halftime, 37-30.
The Lady Rebels could not get enough stops after halftime to complement their scoring, despite several self-inflicted wounds by the Aggies. Ole Miss remained down by eight at the end of the third quarter, 53-45.
Ole Miss came to life in the fourth. Lattimore drained a quick jump shot early followed by consecutive layups by McMahon.
It was too little, too late. The Aggies stayed ahead and won 66-58. Their scrappy defense limited the Lady Rebels all night.
The biggest question this game poses is if Thienou is a bigger asset than most fans might have originally thought. The guard has missed the past four games with a bone bruise. She averaged 9.3 points per game and was second on the team in minutes per game with 28.4 prior to her injury.
“We just don’t have any margin of error with Sira (Thienou) being out,” McPhee-McCuin said in a postgame press conference. “When I built this team, she was a big part of it … Her absence is felt.”
McPhee-McCuin believes that this losing streak is just a speed bump and not the end of her squad’s story.
“I hate that we lost, but I’ve been doing this so long. I just know this isn’t the end of the story,” McPhee-McCuin said. “For the people that feel disappointed, it seems like we’re on a decline right now, (but) I like to argue differently.”
What’s next?
No. 19 Ole Miss (21-9, 8-8 SEC) is the No. 7 seed in the SEC Tournament, which will take place in Greenville, S.C. from March 4-8.
The Lady Rebels will play the winner of No. 15 seed Auburn and No. 10 seed Texas A&M at 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 5. SEC Network will broadcast the game.
