Ole Miss learning new ways to win, holding off Auburn for second SEC victory of the season
A December loss to Southern Mississippi in the closing minutes turned out to be a teaching moment for the future for the Ole Miss women’s basketball team.
In Hattiesburg the Rebels were not able to hold on and secure a win over the in-state rival but on Thursday the story was different inside the SJB Pavilion, beating Auburn 58-55 in what became thrilling fashion.
For the first 30 minutes Ole Miss (12-4, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) was cruising to a bounce-back win after the LSU loss four days earlier, leading the Tigers (11-5, 0-3) by as many at 18 points. Defense was back to how the Rebels prefer it under the ‘Dictate and Disrupt’ banner of head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin.
Giving up 50 points in the first half to LSU was unacceptable for McCuin and her players so Ole Miss made it its mission to regroup. Until the start of the fourth quarter the Rebels were heading to its best defensive performance in an SEC game, flirting with the lowest point total allowed by an SEC opponent.
Turns out Texas A&M’s 38 points from last season is still safe as the record thanks to the Tigers outscoring Ole Miss 21-9 in the final 10 minutes on Thursday. Still, the home team withstood the storm and did just enough to hold on.
“We were getting ready to crumble and that’s why I called a timeout,” McCuin said. “I just told them in that timeout, ‘We have been going through these situations in practice. We spend about 15 minutes at the end of every practice to work on situations. …They’ve been in that situation. They were confident and I just told them to be confident.”
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Ole Miss is learning how to win again with this adapted roster, starting with the play of Madison Scott at the point.
The forward-turned-converted-guard finished with 10 points and was the only other Ole Miss player in double figures behind Marquesha Davis’ 15 points. Scott continues to see her gave evolve in the new role which includes finds ways for teammates the score with seven assists in Thursday’s game.
Under McCuin’s six-year tenure Ole Miss has been a stout defensive team and blocking has been part of it with Shakira Austin. But Rita Igbokwe is starting to grasp that role her second season with McCuin.
Igbokwe finished with three blocks on the night but also added six points and eight rebounds.
“Rita’s just comfortable in the system,” McCuin said. “Usually it takes a year to learn our defensive system, so she’s comfortable in it and we expect her to be a force. …More importantly, it’s important that we’re able to get the ball inside to someone. Last year I don’t think we played with a post, we didn’t have it. Now we’re getting it in to Rita and she’s finding a way to impact the game.”
Ole Miss returns to the road this weekend, traveling to Starkville for its first meeting with Mississippi State of the season. Tip off is set for 4 p.m. CT on SEC Network.
