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Ole Miss women's basketball gets season sweep over No. 23 Vanderbilt

11by:Jake Thompson•about 16 hours•

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Ole Miss forward Madison Scott. Mandatory credit: Ole Miss athletics.

Styles make fights and Yolett McPhee-McCuin liked the contrast in styles between her Ole Miss women’s basketball team and No. 23 Vanderbilt.

For a second time in less than a month the Rebels defeated the Commodores by double digits, picking up a 76-61 win in Nasvhille on Sunday. Ole Miss won by 28 points in Oxford last month.

For the majority of the 40 minutes the Rebels (15-6, 6-3 Southeastern Conference) dominated and did so without one of its young stars. Freshman guard Sira Thienou picked up three fouls in the first six minutes and subsequently sat for all of the second and all but one minute of the third quarter.

Without one of their best scorers available transfer Starr Jacobs returned to her earlier season form, leading with 24 points and tying Vanderbilt’s Khamil Pierre for a game-high.

“This is a great matchup for us. Star, she loves playing against them,” McPhee said. “This is another monster game she’s had. We just didn’t take them for granted. There’s no win in the SEC you can take an opponent for granted.

Jacobs secured a double-double with 10 rebounds to go with three steals.

Senior forward Madison Scott finished with 16 points, six rebounds, three assists, two blocks and a steal. Thienou finished with six points, two rebounds and an assist in 16 minutes of action.

As with all dominant Ole Miss wins the defense controlled the pace of the game. Vanderbilt (18-5, 5-4) entered the game fourth in the SEC in scoring offense with just over 86 points per game. The ‘Dores were also averaging 13.5 turnovers per game but turned the ball over 18 times on Sunday.

The Rebels scored 21 points off of those turnovers.

“It’s just us playing team defense,” McCuin said. “They’re so good from a schematic standpoint that if you try to play one on one against them they’re going to get open shots and they don’t miss them. For us it was a complete team defense so they never had an open look. What that did is it made them have to work really hard so by the time they got to the fourth quarter I don’t know how much they had the legs.”

Next up Ole Miss returns home for a pair of games against No. 13 Oklahoma on Thursday then No. 12 Kentucky on February 10.

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