Ole Miss cruises past Lipscomb 76-49 for second straight win
Shandricka Sessom led the Rebels with 26 points. (Photo credit: Josh McCoy, Ole Miss Athletics)
OXFORD, Miss. – On Sunday evening, the Ole Miss women’s basketball team defeated Lipscomb, picking up where they left off Friday when the Rebels opened the season with a win over Southeastern Louisiana, scoring from virtually all over the court in the process.
Junior guard Shandricka Sessom had a game-high 26 points, senior guard Erika Sisk added 14 points on 7 of 11 shooting, and Shelby Gibson added 10 as the Rebels (2-0) dismantled Lipscomb (0-2) 76-49 inside The Pavilion.
The Rebels scored five straight points to start the game before the Bison showed some fight, closing the deficit to 11-5. But Ole Miss quickly reeled off eight straight points to extend its lead to 19-5 off Sessom’s breakaway layup.
“That first half was fun, probably the best first half I have had in coaching. Our team played hard offensively and defensively and that was really exciting.”
Ole Miss head coach Matt Insell
The Rebels were up 16 points after the first 10 minutes and didn’t slow down, going on a 13-2 run in the final 7:46 of the second period to go into halftime up 42-12. Ole Miss scored the final seven points of the second period. Taylor Manuel’s layup was followed by five straight points from Madinah Muhammad.
Kaylee Cotton had 14 points to lead Lipscomb. As a team, the Bison shot just 20.8 percent in the first half, 32.7 percent for the game. The Rebels shot 45.5 from the field and got solid production from Sessom, who went 11 for 19 from the floor. Ole Miss didn’t have as many turnovers as it did against the Lions, with just 11 for the game.
The Rebels’ defense proved to be too much for the Bison, who committed 22 turnovers. Ole Miss scored 16 off of them. The Rebels didn’t shoot well from the free throw line, going 10 for 21; however, Insell isn’t concerned just two games in to the season.
“That’s not us,” Insell said about the free throw shooting.
“Everybody misses them. We work a lot on it. I have no concern there. We will be alright there. It’s just something that happens from time to time. You don’t talk about free throws. When you starting talking about it, they starting thinking about it. Just got to keep working on it.”
Matt Insell on Rebels’ free throw shooting
Other notes
Erika Sisk is only 43 points away from 1,000 career points. (Photo credit: Josh McCoy)
Ole Miss owns a 4-1 record against Lipscomb, and the Rebels are 3-0 in games played in Oxford.
Ole Miss has won back-to-back games to open the season for the first time since the 2014-15 season, when it opened with three straight wins.
The Bison shot 20 percent from the floor and had 28 turnovers in their loss season-opening road loss at Loyola Maryland and didn’t improve against the Rebels.
With Sisk’s 14 points against Lipscomb, she’s now 43 points away from 1,000 career points. She will become the second player to achieve the milestone under head coach Matt Insell and staff and will become the 27th player in program history to top 1,000 career points.
Next up
Ole Miss will host Jacksonville State on Thursday (6:00 p.m., SEC Network+).
Courtney Smith
Courtney is from Memphis and received his Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts from the University of Memphis in May of 2014. He began his journalism career covering the Memphis Tigers Men's basketball team, which landed him an intern position on 730 Yahoo Sports Radio and a position with Rivals.com. A freelance writer for the Associated Press, Courtney is also a member of The Rebel Walk team and reports regularly on Ole Miss football and basketball. Courtney, the father of a six-year old girl named Soniyah, prefers to cover NCAA basketball and football, but is happy to report on any other sport that comes his way.
