Matt Insell has a little more time to work on his golf game.
Don’t blame the Ole Miss women’s basketball coach, though, if he loses his concentration on the links and thinks ahead to the start of the 2016-17 season. The Rebels’ performance on a 10-day trip to Costa Rica has the fourth-year coach eager to begin another campaign.
“They really come together,” Insell said Monday while in Tennessee enjoying a break after the trip. “If we are going to make this season our time, our talent alone can’t do that. We have to come together as one unit, not 13 individual players. That is something we have been really harping on is coming together as one.”
Insell was pleased to see Ole Miss accomplish that goal on the trip that started Aug. 1 and ended Aug. 10. He said the team built better chemistry thanks to numerous activities. It also had a chance to challenge itself against other teams. Insell said the Rebels passes those tests, too, going 3-0.
Junior guard Shandricka Sessom led the team in scoring in two of the games with 20 and 22 points. Torri Lewis shared scoring honors with Sessom with a 22-point effort in a 163-35 victory against the University of Costa Rica.
Insell said the Rebels didn’t go into the game trying to score 163 points, but he said Costa Rica pressed for most of the game and that his team continued to have success. Freshmen Shelby Gibson and Kaitlyn Rodgers had 17 and 12 points, respectively, in that victory.
Sessom was the only player to start all three games on the trip. She didn’t play many minutes in the third game, a 71-46 victory against the University of Ottawa because Insell said he didn’t want to push her after she went down hard following a fall. Gibson (11 points), Bree Glover (10 points), Shequila Joseph (nine rebounds), and Bretta Hart (eight rebounds) helped pick up the slack.
Sessom had 20 points in a 77-34 victory against Ottawa in the first game.
“The first two games Shandricka played were just phenomenal,” Insell said. “She was lights out and is playing at a high, high level. She is playing with an extreme level of confidence.”
Insell said he also liked what he saw from senior Erika Sisk and sophomore Alissa Alston at point guard. He said the players made mistakes, but he praised them for keeping the team under control and for making plays for themselves and for their teammates.
“I think we’re going to be better at the point guard position than we have in the past three seasons,” Insell said.
Insell said Ole Miss will take two weeks off before it gets back together to prepare for the start of the 2016-17 season. Ole Miss will play host to Southeastern Louisiana at 2:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11, in its season opener at The Pavilion at Ole Miss.
Insell said Kentucky transfer Chrishae Rowe, who was the Pacific-12 Conference Freshman of the Year at Oregon in 2013-14, didn’t play on the trip due to NCAA rules. She will be eligible to play at the start of the second semester. Transfer Taylor Manuel also didn’t accompany Ole Miss on the trip. Insell said she is completing an internship and will join the program next week.
Based on what he saw prior to the trip and in Costa Rica, Insell is confident Ole Miss can make strides and improve on its 10-20 (2-14 in the Southeastern Conference) finish in 2015-16.
“We have some really athletic guards who can create their own shots and go off the bounce and do some different things,” Insell said. “They also can create for others, which makes us very hard to guard. We also have some post players who can grab rebounds and put them back up or who are going to be able to score. I think we will be a more well-rounded team with a lot of different options.
“We’re getting better in our man-to-man defense, which is something we wanted to focus on. We worked on basic fundamentals. I was very, very pleased with where we are at, but we have a long way to go. We have a lot of new players who have to learn to play half-court defense. But we have a lot of experienced players back who have been in the program for several years, which is something we have not had. That’s when you start seeing a more confident team and I am not grinding on them as much because they know what is expected of them.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.