OXFORD – A late shooting drought doomed No. 25 Ole Miss on Sunday afternoon against Texas A&M as the Aggies upset the Rebels 66-58 at SJB Pavilion on Senior Day. It’s the Rebels’ (21-10, 8-8 SEC) fourth loss in a row.
Ole Miss trailed 60-57 with 4:23 remaining in the game and scored one point the remainder of the contest while missing its last seven shots from the field. The Rebels shot 32% from the field in the game and went just 7 of 21 on 3-point attempts. It’s the fourth straight game Ole Miss has been without sophomore guard Sira Thienou, who suffered a bone bruise in a win against Tennessee on Feb. 17. Thienou averages 9.3 points per game and 5.6 rebounds per game. The Rebels “don’t have any margin of error” without Thienou, according to Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin.
Texas A&M (14-11, 7-9) shot 48% from the field. The Rebels entered the game allowing opponents to shoot just under 41%.
“Sira starts our defense. Sira rebounds for us. … She was our lead defender. She averaged 5 rebounds a game. That’s what we’re missing,” McPhee-McCuin said. “ … Sira impacts us so much that (senior) Cotie (McMahon) can’t even play the point, and that’s where, when we were making our runs, Cotie was at the point.
“ … I hate that we lost. But y’all, I’ve been doing this so long … I just know that this is not the end of the story.”
The Aggies jumped out to an early 15-5 lead, hitting their first five shots of the afternoon while taking advantage of a more than four-and-a-half minute Rebels scoring drought. Texas A&M’s 10-point lead to start the second quarter was quickly cut down to two, as Ole Miss scored the first eight points of the period. The second quarter was one of streaks, as a 6-0 Aggies run was later matched by a 6-0 Rebels run. A 3-pointer with 4 seconds remaining in the second by Texas A&M’s Fatmata Janneh capped off five straight Aggies points to end the half.
“I just think we have to continue to go through whatever we have to go through. … Maybe this crew that I have gets sick of losing, all right? … If they get sick of losing, then we won’t give up 23 points in the first quarter. When do we ever do that?” McPhee-McCuin said. “I don’t know what the reason is. I’m not going to make something up … I’ll just continue to coach them up. I’m not going to quit on them.”
Texas A&M extended its lead to 13 just more than two minutes into the third quarter and led by eight heading into the fourth. The Rebels went 5 of 17 from the field in the third and committed five turnovers. Ole Miss scored the first six points of the fourth quarter and cut the Aggies’ lead to two on three occasions but was unable to get any closer. The Rebels did not lead in the game. McMahon led the Rebels with 19 points.
Ole Miss begins play in the SEC Tournament on Thursday.
“For me, the No. 1 thing is just to continue to coach the young players up and get our players healthy,” McPhee-McCuin said.
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