Ole Mis superstar Cotie McMahon scored 39 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and dished out five assists as the Rebels beat the daylights out of the Tennessee Lady Vols inside the Pavilion on Thursday. The final score was 94-81, but the game wasn’t that close. The Rebels largest lead was 26 points, coming in the second half. Ole Miss led the game from start to finish.
The game was a rescheduled affair that cancelled after the recent ice storm that struck the greater Oxford area.
This was the second game in a critical four-game stretch for Ole Miss, which started Sunday with a loss at Kentucky. Ole Miss hosts LSU on Thursday before traveling to South Carolina on Sunday.
“We are already in the NCAA Tournament,” said Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin. “No one in the country has a stretch of games like this.”
No. 17 Ole Miss improved to 21-6 overall and to 8-4 in SEC play. The Rebels, who are locks for the NCAA Tournament, are playing to host a Regional in Oxford. Tennessee dropped to 16-8 overall and to 8-4 inside the SEC.
“I’m really proud of Team 51,” said McPhee-McCuin. “This is an unfortunate situation for both us and Tennessee having to play this game. But it’s hard for me to feel sorry for Tennessee when we have LSU and South Carolina coming up. But still unfortunate for both teams.”
The Ole Miss bench celebrates a big moment in Tuesday’s victory over the Tennessee Lady Vols.
The Rebels will have played four nationally-ranked teams in a row in a span of eight days. South Carolina is ranked No. 3 and LSU No. 7 in the latest Associated Press Top 25.
McPhee-McCuin was not surprised by her team’s dominant effort versus the Lady Vols.
“I felt like that our team would come out and play the way that they did, because they understand the moment. I thought the shoot-around was phenomenal today, and I thought everybody was engaged. Really glad that we went 1-0 and hopefully we can just to continue to build on this,” said McPhee-McCuin.
There was a scary moment at the 4:35 mark in the third quarter when Sira Thienou left the game with a lower-body injury. She was taken to the locker room by trainers but later returned courtside. While she did not play again, training staff cleared her to return. The score was so lop-sided that McPhee-McCuin declined to put her back into the game.
Ole Miss led 18-12 after a semi-competitive first quarter but built its lead to 44-33 at the half. The Rebels outscored Tennessee 31-20 in the third to carry a commanding 75-53 lead into the final quarter of play.
Christeen Iwuala followed McMahon’s 39-point output with 18 of her own. Latasha Lattimore also registered a double-double with 14 points and 12 boards. Tianna Thompson added 12 points to the Rebels’ tally.
NOTES
Coach Yo’ was not pleased with the crowd. It was loud but a sparsely attended affair. It simply cannot be that way Thursday night, she said.
Cotie McMahon scored her 2,000th career point versus Tennessee.
The postgame handshake between McPhee-McCuin and Tennessee head coach Kim Caldwell was a blow-by from Caldwell. In short, she might have touched Yo’s hand, but she did not shake it. Yo’ said afterwards it is a competitive game, that she likes Caldwell and never takes that sort of stuff to heart.
NEXT UP
Ole Miss will host LSU on Thursday at 8 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on ESPN.
SEC WOMEN’S BASKETBALL STANDINGS
| conf | cpct | overall | opct | home | road | neutral | strk | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 South Carolina | 11-1 | 0.917 | 25-2 | 0.926 | 14-0 | 9-1 | 2-1 | W6 |
 Vanderbilt | 10-3 | 0.769 | 24-3 | 0.889 | 14-0 | 6-2 | 4-1 | L1 |
 Texas | 9-3 | 0.750 | 24-3 | 0.889 | 16-0 | 5-3 | 3-0 | W1 |
 LSU | 8-4 | 0.667 | 22-4 | 0.846 | 11-2 | 8-2 | 3-0 | L1 |
 Ole Miss | 8-4 | 0.667 | 21-6 | 0.778 | 12-0 | 4-4 | 5-2 | W1 |
 Tennessee | 8-4 | 0.667 | 16-8 | 0.667 | 9-2 | 7-4 | 0-2 | L2 |
 Oklahoma | 7-5 | 0.583 | 19-6 | 0.760 | 12-2 | 4-3 | 3-1 | W2 |
 Kentucky | 7-6 | 0.538 | 20-7 | 0.741 | 12-2 | 7-4 | 1-1 | W2 |
 Alabama | 6-6 | 0.500 | 20-6 | 0.769 | 16-2 | 2-4 | 2-0 | L2 |
 Georgia | 6-6 | 0.500 | 20-6 | 0.769 | 11-3 | 5-3 | 4-0 | W1 |
 Mississippi State | 5-7 | 0.417 | 18-8 | 0.692 | 13-3 | 3-5 | 2-0 | W2 |
 Missouri | 4-8 | 0.333 | 16-11 | 0.593 | 9-6 | 4-4 | 3-1 | L2 |
 Florida | 3-9 | 0.250 | 15-12 | 0.556 | 12-4 | 1-8 | 2-0 | L1 |
 Texas A&M | 3-9 | 0.250 | 10-11 | 0.476 | 6-5 | 2-5 | 2-1 | W1 |
 Auburn | 2-10 | 0.167 | 13-13 | 0.500 | 9-5 | 2-7 | 2-1 | L7 |
 Arkansas | 0-12 | 0.000 | 11-16 | 0.407 | 8-8 | 1-8 | 2-0 | L13 |