The Ole Miss Women’s Basketball team won two games and advanced to the semifinal of the SEC Tournament from Thursday, March 5 to Saturday, March 7 in Greenville, S.C. They defeated No. 15 Auburn and No. 2 Vanderbilt before losing to No. 3 Texas.
The Lady Rebels were the No. 7 seed and got a first-round bye. They came into the week on a four-game losing streak, but strengthened their resume to earn a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament, thanks in part to their run in the SEC Tournament.
Auburn
Ole Miss defeated Auburn 73-57 in the second round of the SEC Tournament on Thursday, March 5.
The Lady Rebels burst out of the gate early, taking an 8-1 lead just two minutes into the first quarter and forcing the Tigers to call a timeout. Ole Miss never relinquished the lead and took a 28-point advantage heading into halftime.
Auburn made runs throughout the second half, cutting the deficit to 13 points on one occasion, but the Tigers never drew within 10 points.
“When we play a team like Auburn that is very phenomenal at driving the ball, we usually try to pack it in,” head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said in a postgame press conference. “This game wasn’t about trying to beat Auburn, per se. It was about making sure our mentality is the way we need (it) to be, which is … we dictate and disrupt.”
Forward Christeen Iwuala led the Lady Rebels in scoring with 18 points, followed by forwards Cotie McMahon and Latasha Lattimore with 13 points each. Ole Miss shot 52.8% from the floor, a blistering 53.8% from three-point range and 76.9% from the free-throw line.
Ole Miss played fast, physical basketball and simply overwhelmed Auburn from the very beginning. The Lady Rebels shot the ball excellently and pounded the glass, outrebounding the Tigers 40-23.
The Rebels moved the ball around efficiently, racking up 16 assists compared to Auburn’s 10. The Tigers simply could not match the Lady Rebels’ shooting prowess. Along with Auburn’s poor rebounding performance, Ole Miss dominated from start to finish.
“The goal is to continue to build this, and if it works tomorrow and we get to play another game, we’re going to continue to do it,” McPhee-McCuin said. “If not, we’re going to continue to do it so we prepare ourselves for when we get outside of the SEC for March Madness.”
Vanderbilt
Ole Miss Women’s Basketball took down No. 2 Vanderbilt 89-78 in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament on Thursday, March 6.
The Lady Rebels jumped to an 8-2 lead, forcing a Commodore timeout just 90 seconds into the first quarter. Ole Miss never let up and took a commanding 49-17 lead into halftime.
Ole Miss held Vanderbilt to a 17.2% shooting performance from the field at the half and forced 11 Commodores turnovers.
Their 32-point advantage was the largest halftime lead for the Lady Rebels and the largest deficit for the Commodores all season.
Vanderbilt made ferocious runs throughout the second half, but the lead never shrunk to less than 10 points. Vanderbilt head coach Shea Ralph was called for a technical foul after vocally disagreeing with a foul call on Mikayla Blakes early in the fourth quarter.
Lattimore led the Rebels in scoring with 28 points, followed by McMahon with 27 and guard Tianna Thompson with 16 points. As a team, Ole Miss shot 57.1% from the field, 50% from three-point range and 79.2% from the free-throw line.
Ole Miss overwhelmed the Commodores from tip-off. Their performance in this game was nearly identical to their performance in the win against Auburn.
Texas
Ole Miss’ run in the SEC Tournament came to an end in the semifinal against No. 2 Texas, 85-6, on Saturday, March 7. Texas jumped out to a quick lead and maintained it from start to finish.
The Lady Rebels cut the lead to two points entering the fourth quarter, with guard Denim DeShields hitting a 3-pointer at the buzzer to end the third quarter.
“I think people, after seeing what we did to Auburn, seeing what we did to Vandy, seeing how we crawl back in this game — and like you all said, the game was closer than the end score,” McPhee-McCuin said. “If people watched it, it was very competitive. It was a two-point game. We’re going to be a tough out.”
The Longhorns were up by as many as 18 points in the first half and took a 42-32 lead heading into halftime. Despite an intense Ole Miss rally throughout the second half, Texas proved to be too much, and the Longhorns pulled away in the fourth quarter.
McMahon and DeShields led Ole Miss in scoring with 20 points each. As a team, the Lady Rebels shot 39.1% from the floor, 26.3% from three-point range and 100% from the free throw line.
Texas took a page out of Ole Miss’ book, jumping out to a big lead early and hanging on for the rest of the game. Both teams were strong on the glass, with Texas narrowly outrebounding the Rebels 32-30. This was an even game, but Texas simply outpaced the Rebels.
“We’ve been on a journey, and every journey has its ups and downs, but our growth individually and collectively has been remarkable,” McPhee-McCuin said. “I think the only people that can really recognize it and praise it the way that it should be are the people that are in our locker room, because obviously we see what goes on day-in-and-day out. We’re there with each other every single day, highs and lows.”
What’s next?
No. 5 Ole Miss will play No. 12 Gonzaga in the Round of 64 of the NCAA Tournament in Minneapolis on Friday, March 20 at 2:30 p.m. CT. ESPN2 will broadcast the game.
“This has just been such a challenging season for us. There’s so many lessons that we learned through it all, that we have talked about as we’ve gone through it,” McPhee-McCuin said. “I’m just grateful for the opportunity for us to experience those, because we are going to learn from them and use them as we try to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.”
