OXFORD – As time was running down in what wound up being the game of her life, Ole Miss senior forward Cotie McMahon knew exactly how close she was to setting her career-high scoring mark.
As she had all game and nearly the entire season, she came through in the clutch.
McMahon scored a career-high 39 points against Tennessee on Tuesday night and passed the 2,000-career point mark in the process, and the No. 17 Rebels notched a crucial win against the No. 21 Lady Volunteers 94-81 at SJB Pavilion. It was the Rebels’ (21-6, 8-4 SEC) second of four games they will play in a week’s span. The game against the Lady Volunteers was initially supposed to be played Jan. 26 but was postponed due to ice storms.
Tuesday’s win was the Rebels’ fourth over a team ranked in the Associated Press poll this year.
McMahon also grabbed 10 rebounds in the game and dished out 5 assists. It was her 16th game this season with at least 20 points. Senior forwards Christeen Iwuala and Latasha Lattimore finished with 16 and 14 points, respectively. Lattimore also had a team-best 12 rebounds.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything like that,” Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said. “Cotie’s a generational player. And Cotie — not only is Cotie super talented … out of all of my star-studded players, I have probably the best relationship with her. And that’s not because of me. That’s because of her.
“She’s the only star player that I’ve had that I can really get on and they never give me any lip back. She’s never done it. She lets me coach her. And I appreciate that about her.”
The Rebels made six of their first eight shots from the field and led by six after the first quarter, spearheaded by McMahon’s five points. The Ohio State transfer carried her momentum into the second quarter, scoring 11 points in a period that saw Ole Miss lead by as many as 14 and by 11 at halftime. Tennessee (16-8, 8-4) shot 37% from the field in the first half but hit four 3-pointers to stay in striking distance. The Rebels, who shot 53% in the first half, trailed for less than a minute.
The Lady Volunteers missed six of their first nine shots in the third quarter, and 10 combined points by McMahon and sophomore guard Sira Thienou helped the Rebels extend their lead 21 points midway through the period. McMahon scored 13 points in the third quarter, and Ole Miss led by 22 heading into the fourth. The Rebels scored eight points off six Lady Volunteers turnovers in the third.
A 3-pointer as the shot clock expired with just over two minutes remaining in the fourth put McMahon past her previous career-high of 33 points. She scored 10 points or more in all but one quarter. The Rebels led for more than 39 minutes overall.
“I feel like I owed it to my team,” McMahon said. “I didn’t really show up against Kentucky our last game, and we’ve just been preaching, ‘Be where your feet are, focus on the game that’s in front of us, and when it’s in front of us we want to go 1-0.’ And I think that was my focus. I know this team goes as I go, so I really wanted to set the tone and make sure that they knew I had their back.”
Ole Miss hosts No. 7 LSU tonight and plays at No. 3 South Carolina Sunday. Tonight’s game tips at 8 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN.
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