OXFORD – After a tough road trip, the Ole Miss women returned home and bounced back in a big way.
Ole Miss used a complete offensive effort and another strong defensive performance to beat Vanderbilt 87-59 at the SJB Pavilion on Thursday. All five starters had at least 10 points, and the Rebels held the Commodores to their lowest point total of the season.
“I’ll tell you one thing,” Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said. “It felt good to be home.”
The Rebels (11-4, 2-1) and Commodores traded punches to start the game, but consecutive layups by Sira Thienou ignited the Ole Miss offense.
Kennedy Todd-Williams kept it going with three 3-pointers in the first three minutes of the second quarter. Ole Miss then went on an 11-2 run that included four straight made field goals. Todd-Williams hit another triple five seconds before halftime, by which point the Rebels led 44-25.
Vanderbilt (14-3, 1-2) came into Thursday averaging 89.2 points per game, the most in the SEC. With the Commodores’ propensity to make the opposition uncomfortable, the Rebels knew they had to punch first.
“I just kept thinking about not sitting back and letting people feel like we’re sitting ducks because we lost one on the road,” McPhee-McCuin said. “We’re going to show them that we’re ready to fight.”
Offensively, no scorer was more prolific than Todd-Williams. The senior from North Carolina had career highs in points (25), threes (5) and assists (7). The big night came from “being shot ready”.
“Obviously, the past couple games, I haven’t been shooting at my best from the three,” Todd-Williams said. “So being able to see that (first) one go in, it felt good. Got my confidence going.”
Todd-Williams had made five threes in Ole Miss’s last seven games combined heading into Thursday.
A layup by Thienou and a midrange jumper by Todd-Williams kept the Rebels rolling to start the third quarter. The buckets were the start of a 20-5 run for Ole Miss, which used it to take a 66-31 lead with 3:08 left in the third quarter.
Thienou ended the night second on Ole Miss with 16 points. It is her seventh-straight game with at least 10 and her 11th this season.
With a Quad 1 win in hand after a tough loss at Texas A&M on Sunday, another opportunity presents itself.
The Rebels will host No. 19 Alabama on Sunday at 3 p.m. The Crimson Tide have a prolific offense of their own, averaging 83.1 points per game. However, Alabama will be looking to bounce back after a loss at No. 5 Texas.
McPhee-McCuin felt that the win on Thursday will help build momentum and confidence heading into another big matchup.
“We felt like we could do what we needed to do versus a very good team, that I expect to be in the NCAA tournament as well,” McPhee-McCuin said. “And definitely take that confidence, going into Alabama’s game.”
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