OXFORD — Destiney Elliott had a game-high 20 points to go with eight rebounds Sunday to lead the Jacksonville State women’s basketball team to a 60-49 victory against Ole Miss at The Pavilion at Ole Miss.
Yamia Johnson added 15 points for Jacksonville State (4-3), which had a 30-16 edge in points in the paint and forced 20 turnovers, which it converted into a 24-5 advantage in points off turnovers.
Crystal Allen led Ole Miss (3-6) with 19 points, while Shandricka Sessom had 14.
“(JSU) fought and they wanted it,” Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said. “They came out and they stuck to their game plan. They did what it took, and we didn’t, and that’s how you win games and lose games. They pressured us for 40 minutes. They helped off a lot inside and did not allow us to get a lot of clean looks inside without us being crowded. On drives, they were waiting there, and instead of us making one more pass we tried to run them over.”
Ole Miss led 20-15 after one quarter thanks to a 9-for-17 showing (52.9 percent) from the field. But the Rebels shot 23.9 percent the rest of the way.
Allen and Sessom combined for 14 points in the first quarter. They also combined for nine turnovers at point guard. The Rebels played without freshman Mimi Reid, who missed the game due to a concussion. Jacksonville State capitalized on Reid’s absence by using a full-court pressure defense to force turnovers.
“They turn a lot of people over because of their pressure defense, and honestly I was concerned because of our lack of point guard play,” McPhee-McCuin said. “It just made Crystal and Drique play a lot of minutes and put them in positions that are at a disadvantage to us. It was a different type of pressure from TCU where we were able to bring the ball up the floor. This game, they made those girls work for every shot.”
Junior Jhileiya Dunlap added six points and eight rebounds for Ole Miss, which will play host to Savannah State at 2 p.m. Saturday at The Pavilion at Ole Miss.
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