The Ole Miss women’s basketball team won its first game at the Daytona Beach Invitational and lost its second.
The Rebels (5-3) beat Alcorn State 73-55 on Friday behind 20 points from Valerie Nesbitt, 15 points from Dominique Banks and 13 points from Taylor Smith.
But on Saturday, Pittsburgh exploded for five 3-pointers in a 22-point first quarter, and Ole Miss couldn’t recover. The Rebels lost to the Panthers 58-50.
“We just couldn’t get stops and make shots when we needed to,” Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said in a news release from the school. “We didn’t get rebounds when we needed to. If we want to win games, we have to get stops. We had opportunities to get the ball so we could go in transition, and we didn’t. We gave them offensive rebounds. The rebounds hurt us tonight.”
Nesbitt led the Rebels with 14 points, while Banks and Deja Cage each scored 10.
Ole Miss will travel to face Texas Tech at 7 p.m. Wednesday as part of the Big 12/SEC Challenge.
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