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Ole Miss women's basketball unable to slow down a hot-shooting No. 18 Alabama

11by:Jake Thompson•about 12 hours•

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Ole Miss guard Starr Jacob. Mandatory credit: Ole MIss athletics

The Ole Miss women’s basketball team was looking to have Sunday go better than last Sunday did but that was not the case

A hot-shooting No. 18 Alabama team handed the Rebels their second loss in Southeastern Conference play, beating them 84-78 inside the SJB Pavilion.

The Crimson Tide shot 63 percent from three-point range, hitting 12 of their 19 attempts. Guard Aaliyah Nye accounted for seven of them, finishing with a game-high 32 points. Guard Zaay Green added 27 points.

Known as a defense-first program Ole Miss (11-5, 2-2 SEC) was unable to get the stops and the perimeter defense was lacking.

“We just didn’t compete and that’s something we have to fix,” Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said. “We played the No. 1, 3, 5 teams in the country and we never gave up 25 and 28 points (in a quarter), respectfully.

“In today’s time and today’s coaching you can’t make people do anything. They have to want it. They have to want to compete”

Offensively, it was another performance similar to last week against College Station. Coming in spurts there was no consistency, shooting 43 percent from the floor and 33 percent from three-point range.

Alabama (16-2, 3-1) led the entire second half. The closest the Rebels could get was within five points twice in the final 20 minutes despite scoring 32 points in the fourth quarter.

Starr Jacobs had a career-high 21 points to lead Ole Miss. She was one of four players in double-figures for the Rebels, joining KK Deans (13 points), Christeen Iuwala and Kennedy Todd-Williams (11 points each).

“I just thought that they flustered us,” McCuin added. “You could say that but all year have we scored 32 points in a quarter? …Had we held them to lower numbers y’all would be talking about how great our offense is because we scored 32 points in the fourth. It was a lack of competing. We got to continue to work against the zone (defense).”

This season Ole Miss is now 0-4 against ranked opponents. Those teams are only going to come at a faster pace with No. 5 Texas later this month and currently four games against ranked opponents in February and close out the regular season at No. 5 LSU in early March.

“This program was built on being able to guard at a high level and we didn’t,” McCuin said. “Defense is character and toughness and we didn’t show it. …Like I said before we’re going to take some losses. That’s just this group. I know this group. I’m in there every single day in practice. I know what our weakness is.”

Next up Ole Miss hosts Florida (11-7, 2-2) on Thursday at 8 p.m. CT on the SEC Network.

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