Ole Miss Uses A Big Third Quarter to Defeat Middle Tennessee

Tonight’s game inside the Pavilion matched family members against one another as Ole Miss Head Coach Matt Insell and the Rebels defeated his father’s Middle Tennessee team 65-56.
It was Insell’s first win over his dad, Rick Insell, after losing the past three games. But the Ole Miss coach downplayed the father-son rivalry in a post-game interview.
“A lot of people get caught up in the Insell vs. Insell,” he said. “It’s Middle Tennessee vs. Ole Miss, two teams trying to get to the NCAA Tournament. “It was a win-win game for us and a win-win game for them, not something that you are going to look back and say that was a bad loss. They will bounce back from this; they have Georgia Tech, Louisville and Kentucky coming up. I promise you this: He will beat two of those teams. He will win [against] two of these Power 5 teams.”
The Rebels rallied back from a 17-5 deficit in the first quarter behind junior Alissa Alston, who scored 22 points and went 14-16 from the charity stripe. Two of her teammates also ended the night scoring in double figures – Madinah Muhammad finished with 16, and Tori Lewis cashed in 10 of her own.
“Lewis played a position that she never played in her life,” Insell said. “I told her in the huddle this is what I want you to do defensively and offensively, and she went and did it. She is a rock for us. ”
In the second half, the Rebels came out on fire, outscoring Middle Tennessee 24-3, and never relinquished the lead. Ole Miss scored a total of 29 points in the third quarter.
“I was really proud of our team,” Insell said. “Every adjustment we asked them to make at halftime, they made it. To come out in the second half and battle through it … I could not be more proud of our team and to be their coach.”
Ole Miss will take on Arkansas State on Saturday at 3 p.m. inside the Pavilion.

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By Adam Brown, sports editor of HottyToddy.com. He can be reached at adam.brown@hottytoddy.com.