Ole Miss Women’s Basketball Beats Florida, Continues Winning Streak

By Adam Brown
Sports Editor
adam.brown@hottytoddy.com

The Ole Miss women’s basketball team continued to roll in SEC play with a 74-56 win at Florida on Thursday night.

“Just really grateful for the win and to start 1-0 in SEC play,” Coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said. “For us with that break, I did not want my players to use that as an excuse to come out and be lethargic knowing that it would take us a minute. We started to hit our stride in the third quarter.”

Ole Miss (13-1, 1-0 SEC) controlled the game with a strong defensive presence and a huge third quarter by outscoring the Gators 24-12.

“Halftime [we were] able to make adjustments,” McPhee-McCuin said. 

McPhee-McCuin added that she had been subbing to keep players’ minutes down in the physical game. 

Senior center Shakira Austin led the Rebels with her 33 double-doubles (in her career) after 18 points and ten rebounds. Austin finished the night 4-of-16 from the field and 10-of-15 from the free-throw line. 

“It’s extremely important for me to stay aggressive,” Austin said. “I felt a little rusty from the COVID break.  Try to get my rhythm back.”

Austin was joined in double figures by Madison Scott with 15 points and Lashonda Monk with 11 points.

“Maddi wants to do well and she came to Ole Miss to do well,” McPhee-McCuin said. I am glad in the second half that we challenged her at halftime and she stepped up.”

Ole Miss took a four-point advantage into the break at halftime and never looked back.  The Rebels held Florida to go 0-for-8 from beyond the arc and turn the ball over 25 times. 

“We did a good job of making it hard to get a shot off and driving,” McPhee-McCuin said. “In the first quarter, we held them to points and second 12 points. I don’t think they scored over 15 points in one quarter.”

McPhee-McCuin added that they focused on taking away the three from them and that was an emphasis for us.

Ole Miss has now won four road games since the 1986-1987 season.

Ole Miss returns to the Pavilion on Sunday as they play host to No. 7 Tennessee. Tipoff is set for noon on SEC Network. 

The Rebels are looking to pull off an upset over Tennessee and the fan support for Ole Miss would be a huge boost.

“We look forward to the game and need our sixth man,” McPhee-McCuin said.