Cameron Larkin
The Ole Miss Women’s Basketball team, facing heightened expectations all season, stayed par for the course throughout this year’s winter break, losing just two games since Dec. 12.
Over the approximately seven-week semester break, the Lady Rebels pulled off a four-game win streak to round out the non-conference schedule and completed an impressive road win against Alabama to kick start SEC play.
Sitting at 11-3, Ole Miss welcomed the LSU Tigers for the biggest game so far this season. Hosting the defending national champions was not something Head Coach Yolette McPhee-McCuin, her players or Rebel fans took lightly.
The Jan. 7 matchup between two of the SEC’s best teams drew a sold-out crowd that set the Sandy and John Black Pavillion attendance record with 9,074 fans in the stands.
Even with such a crowd rallying behind the Lady Rebels, the daunting task of outplaying and outshining the No. 7 Tigers was not in the cards for Coach Yo and her squad. LSU walked out of the Pavilion with an 84-73 win.
After the loss to LSU, Ole Miss was in a precarious spot with Auburn on the horizon. Ole Miss started the season ranked No. 12 in the preseason and week one Associated Press polls; needless to say, many people were very high on this team after last year’s rally in the NCAA Tournament. However, an early season falter against the Oklahoma Sooners at home followed by back-to-back mid-season losses to No. 22 Louisville and Southern Miss made it seem like Ole Miss could not win the big games when they mattered most.
Ole Miss silenced those rumblings with a down-to-the-wire victory over Auburn 58-55. Ole Miss dominated the game from the jump ball, leading by double digits for a large majority of the game. A late fourth-quarter slip up saw the Tigers make a comeback, but the sure-handed Lady Rebels held on for the massive win to improve to 2-1 in conference play.
Next up came the hate-filled date with Mississippi State. These two teams were preseason shoe-ins for the NCAA Tournament, and seemingly nothing has changed. The Lady Rebels, entering this game with a 12-4 record, sought to extend a win streak over Bulldogs Head Coach Sam Purcell, who had not beaten Ole Miss since arriving in Starkville — until his team pulled off a 69-57 win on Jan. 14., stunning the Lady Rebels.
The Lady Rebels, determined to return home with a win, traveled to Athens, Georgia, to play the struggling Bulldogs. Thanks to a career day from point guard Kennedy Todd-Williams, Ole Miss fought past Georgia 69-59 in a big road victory.
Rebel veterans Madison Scott and Snudda Collins backed up Todd-Williams with stellar performances of their own. Scott commanded the offense to near perfection, not scoring a bucket of her own but creating shots for each of her teammates while she was on the floor. Collins, on the other hand, lit up the scoring column, tallying 17 points while making over half of the team’s total three pointers.
The Lady Rebels returned home with Florida and Tennessee on the docket – two games that, if won, would catapult Ole Miss into second in the SEC. This is exactly what happened.
On Jan. 25, Ole Miss defeated the Gators 81-70 behind steady play from basically anyone who played. A couple of days later, Coach Yo and company took on the Volunteers in a highly contested matchup two SEC giants.
As head coach of the Rebels, coach Yo had not beaten Tennessee, until Sunday, Jan. 28 when the Rebels defeated the Vols 80-75 to give Ole Miss a season-defining win. A win which, as stated, moved the Lady Rebels just behind South Carolina in the SEC standings.
With SEC play in full swing, every game is a battle until the end of the season. Ole Miss has shown its promise in some tough games over the past month and a half, and it is time for that promise to guide the Rebels through the gauntlet that is the Southeastern Conference.
