WATCH-LISTEN: Rebels donning ‘throwbacks’ against Texas

Who: Ole Miss Rebels (13-5, 4-2 SEC) vs No. 7 Texas Longhorns (19-2, 5-1 SEC)
What: Coming off a two-game win streak, Ole Miss women’s basketball will play host to one of the newest SEC foes in No. 7 Texas.
When: Sunday, 2 p.m.
Where: SJB Pavillion (9,500)
TV/Stream: ESPN / ESPN App (Brenda VanLengen and Christy Thomaskutty)
Radio: Ole Miss RadioNetwork (Graham Dotty).

OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss will be taking a blast from the past on Sunday, as the Rebels are set to wear throwback jerseys, inspired by the Ole Miss uniforms from the 1980s, in their 50th anniversary game against No. 7/7 Texas, head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin announced on Friday.

The Rebels will welcome back and honor the many trailblazers who have paved the way for women’s basketball at Ole Miss during its Alumni weekend. Athletes and coaches from every decade in the program’s 50 years will be in attendance, including the first ever Elite Eight team in program history.

OLE MISS VS. TEXAS

Sunday’s nationally televised game between Ole Miss and Texas will mark the eighth meeting of the series. Texas holds a 6-1 advantage in a series that dates to 1981. The Rebels only win against the Longhorns came in 1988, an 88-67 victory in Oxford.

Ole Miss and Texas last met in 2009, when the Longhorns escaped with a 64-58 win in Austin. Shantell Black and Bianca Thomas led the Rebels, scoring 15 and 13 points, respectively. Thomas drained a trio of 3-pointers as Katorra Lewis brought in seven rebounds.

One of the best individual efforts by a Rebel against the Longhorns came in the 1988-89 season, when Sherry Slayton dished out the fifth-most assists in a single game with 13.

SCOUTING THE LONGHORNS

Texas head coach Vic Schaefer is in his fifth season in Austin. He’s accumulated a 128-34 record for the Longhorns while leading them to a 19-2 record in their first season in the SEC. The Longhorns are ranked seventh in the nation by the Associated Press and in the USA Today Coaches Poll, the third-highest ranked SEC team.

The Longhorns boast the second-best field goal percentage in the SEC, draining 48.4% of their shots. It’s led them to 87.1 points per game, third in the conference and sixth nationally.

Texas is on a three-game winning streak and is coming off a nailbiting victory over No. 17/17 Tennessee in Austin. Madison Booker led the Longhorns with 26 points while playing all 40 minutes, while Taylor Jones recorded her sixth double-double of the season with 21 points and 14 rebounds.

Booker and Jones are the undisputed leaders of the Texas team. Booker, the SEC Preseason Player of the Year, is averaging 16.4 points per game. She’s scored 20-plus points in nine games this season, including the past three in a row. She scored a season-high 28 points last week against Maryland.

Jones, the 6-foot-4 senior, maintains the paint for Texas. She’s averaging 11.8 points in her sixth season of collegiate basketball. She’s averaging 1.65 blocks per game and is the active SEC career leader in that category with 261. She leads the team with 7.0 rebounds per game.

When Jones is not in, Kyla Oldacre is able to pick up the slack coming off the bench. Oldacre is able to score and defend, and is just behind Jones with 6.8 rebounds per game. As Texas’ sixth player, she’s scoring 10.1 points per game while rejecting 1.0 shots. Texas is averaging 34.4 points off the bench, the third-highest in the country, with Oldacre leading the way.

Texas has the best turnover margin in the SEC with Rori Harmon running the point. She’s averaging the second-most assists per game in the SEC with 6.2 and leads the conference in assist/turnover ratio with 3.42 and has 2.52 steals per game. The four-year starter for Texas has accumulated the second-most assists by an active SEC player with 631, as well as the fourth-most steals with 248.

IN OUR DEFENSE

It’s well known that Ole Miss aims to dictate and disrupt, a goal the Rebel defense has accomplished so far.

In scoring defense, the Rebels sit at No. 6 in the nation and No. 1 in the SEC, holding opponents to just 52.9 points per game. Through 18 games in the 2024-25 season, Ole Miss has forced eight teams to score fewer than 50 points. This marks the fourth straight year a Rebel team has held at least eight opponents to below 50 points.

GOING MADi

The game against Mississippi State was a special one for Madison Scott, as it marked what could be her final time competing against the Rebels’ in-state rival.

Scott, who has competed in an Ole Miss jersey for her entire five years of collegiate basketball, made sure it was a performance Rebel fans would never forget, notching a career-best 30 points and 11 field goals to lead Ole Miss to a 71-63 win over its bitter foe in Starkville, Miss.

The First Team All-SEC honoree reached 20-plus points for the seventh time of her career and was the first Rebel to drop 30 points this season. The last Ole Miss player to notch 30 points was Marquesha Davis who scored 33 last season against Florida and recently won the WNBA Championship with the New York Liberty.

Along with her impressive night from the field, Scott shot 7-of-8 from the free throw line and made her lone 3-point attempt, showing how versatile she can be in any situation. With the Rebels and Bulldogs all tied up at 61 in the fourth quarter, Scott proved her veteran status by going a perfect 3-for-3 from the field and scoring eight points to put Ole Miss up for good.

WHAT CAN’T SHE DO?!

Sira Thienou’s defensive domination reached a new peak against Mississippi State. The freshman robbed the Bulldogs nine times for a career best. Nine steals by a Rebel is the most since Armintie Price had 12 against Illinois on Dec. 2, 2006 and ties for the most by an SEC player in a game this season.

She was the catalyst behind Ole Miss’ 16 steals in the game, their 13th time with 10-or-more steals this season.

Since the beginning of conference play, Thienou has recorded 29 steals for an average of 4.8 per game. Additionally, Thienou added 10 points and a team-leading four assists against Mississippi State.

Information from Ole Miss Sports is included in this story.