Article posted by Mississippi Gazette
OXFORD, Miss. – The Ole Miss women’s basketball team rebounded from back-to-back losses with a 88-48 win over South Alabama on Sunday afternoon at Tad Smith Coliseum. Playing in her first game since Nov. 16, sophomore forward Bretta Hart scored a career-high 14 points and was joined by four teammates in double figures.
“That’s more like it,” head coach Matt Insell said. “That’s what I have been preaching to them over and over. The more we can move the basketball and the more times the ball can change from one side of the floor to the other, we’re going to be really good offensively, and we have a good basketball team offensively.
“If we can sit down in the halfcourt and not just rely on traps and all this other stuff to create turnovers, and we just start creating them because we’re giving good defensive discipline and staying a stance, great things will happen.”
The Rebels (7-3) shot a season-best 53.2 percent from the field, including a season-best 60.0 percent in the second half, as five players scored in double figures for the first time this season.
Sophomore guard Erika Sisk (Oxford, Miss.) also finished with 14 points, followed followed by senior forward Tia Faleru (Ozark, Ala.) with 12, senior forward Danielle McCray (West Palm Beach, Fla.) with 11 and sophomore guard Shequila Joseph (London, England) with 10.
“I asked this basketball team to do something on Wednesday that’s kind of unheard of,” said Insell, referring to a new motion offense Ole Miss installed in practice Wednesday. “We took our whole playbook of plays that we had been running and threw them in the trash can. I asked them to change what we’re doing offensively.”
Defensively, Ole Miss held South Alabama (3-4) to 29.5 percent shooting, including 17.4 percent shooting in the second half, where the Rebels allowed just four made field goals and 14 points. Ole Miss also forced 31 turnovers, including 20 steals, turning them into 42 points off turnovers.
“We forced 31 turnovers, and we may have trapped two times the whole game,” Insell said. “That’s pretty good defense. That was just us having great ball pressure, staying in a stance, not getting beat baseline and having great denials. That’s what we pride ourselves on.
The first half was a game of runs, as South Alabama turned a 5-2 deficit into a 12-5 lead after a 10-0 run. Ole Miss answered with a 14-5 run to retake a 19-17 lead, a lead the Rebels would not relinquish the rest of the game. South Alabama got to within seven, down 39-32, but that was as close as they would get on the way, as Ole Miss took a 42-34 lead into halftime.
Ole Miss opened the second half on a 26-4 run, including an 14-0 run at one point, holding South Alabama without a field goal for the first 8:30 of the second half. The Rebels held the Jaguars to just 14 points in the second half, holding them scoreless for stretches of 3:42 and 5:17.
“In the second half, the onslaught happened because we guarded, and offensively, we slowed down and made the right plays,” Insell said. “I’m really happy with them. We’ll get back to work tomorrow. We have a long way to go and we have to continue to improve.”
Ole Miss continues their six-game home stand, hosting Southern Miss on Thursday as part of a doubleheader with the Ole Miss men’s team. The Rebels and Golden Eagles will tip off at 4 p.m. at the Tad Smith Coliseum.
“We have three games left before we start SEC play,” Insell said. “We talked about the team about a four-game season. We’re 1-0 on the four-game season. We have a tough matchup Thursday night against a good Southern Miss team to try to get to 2-0. We have to work really hard this week to get ourselves prepared for that game because our goal is to have double-digit wins going into SEC play, and that opportunity is still in front of us, and we’re working hard every day to get there.”
For ticket information, go to OleMissTix.com or call the Ole Miss Ticket Office at 1-888-REB-TKTS (732-8587).
