Skip to main content
ole-miss logo

Ole Miss women's basketball sees a glimpse of its future with historic rout of Florida in bounce-back win

11by:Jake Thompson•about 15 hours•

JakeThompsonOn3

GhdgQQIWQAAV1tc
Ole Miss guard Sira Thienou. Mandatory credit: Ole Miss athletics

When Freshman guard Sira Thienou arrived in Oxford her teammates on the Ole Miss women’s basketball team knew she was special.

Transfer guard Starr Jacobs calls Thienou her “Freshman of the Year” and with Thursday’s performance in the Rebels 94-69 win over Florida inside the SJB Pavilion it is hard to argue. Those were the most points scored in a Southeastern Conference game of the Yolett McPhee-McCuin era at Ole Miss.

Thienou scored a career-high and game-high 29 points to lead Ole Miss (12-5, 3-2 SEC) to a bounce-back win after a frustrating loss to Alabama last Sunday. She also finished with five rebounds and five assists.

While not ideal to be relying on a freshman game-in-and-game-out through a SEC schedule, the French national appears more than up to the task of being the player to carry the Rebels if need be.

In the loss to the Crimson Tide Thienou finished with eight points and disappointed in her effort, serving as motivation on Thursday.

“Sira’s a freshman so you got to give freshmen grace,” McPhee-McCuin said. “You can’t rely on freshmen all the time. It’s a hard thing to do. But the fact she’s been dominating this long and then had a bad game, we didn’t think too much into it. She’s a winner, she’s a competitor and they left her open and she can shoot the ball really well.”

Jacobs finished behind Thienou with 19 points as one of four Ole Miss players to finish in double figures. Kennedy Todd-Williams scored 12 points and Kharyssa Richardson finished with 10 points.

Following the loss to Alabama McCuin acknowledged the ebbs and flows of the start of SEC play is bigger than an identity crisis.

Players were first needing to buy into what McCuin and her staff were trying to sell before positive results can come and be consistent. Giving the idea that there was trouble brewing with this edition of Ole Miss.

Thursday’s game showed what is possible when that “buy in” takes place. The Rebels can run away with a game in an instant.

“Look what we do. This is not a flue,” McCuin said. “Every time we come out (and) we put together a good defensive performance we have these type of results. Will we be able to do that against the top teams in the country? I don’t know. Maybe, maybe not. …We’re better than what we have shown sometimes.”

Next up for Ole Miss is a trip to Starkville on Sunday to take on Mississippi State in the lone meeting of the season. The Bulldogs (15-4, 2-3) are coming off a 86-73 loss at No. 15 Tennessee on Thursday.

You may also like