Ole Miss women’s basketball falls to A&M, 72-53
OXFORD, Miss. — The Rebels went cold in the second half offensively as the Texas A&M Aggies took down Ole Miss in convincing fashion at the Pavilion, 72–53, Thursday night.
Final from Oxford.
We will be back in action next Thursday at Florida. pic.twitter.com/8uXjdtIDax
— Ole Miss Women’s BB (@OleMissWBB) February 9, 2024
“Just incredibly disappointed with my team, incredibly disappointed. No fight. No effort. No maturity. I don’t even know who they were today. I wanna apologize to every fan that came out to support us. That’s not Ole Miss Women’s Basketball. Just really disappointing.”
~ Coach Yo in her opening statement
First Half
Both teams started cold from the field, shooting a combined 5-for-15 from the field. However, after the first bucket from the Aggies, Ole Miss proceeded to go on a 7-0 run over the next 3 minutes.
Toddy drops the threeeee 🤩 pic.twitter.com/PiCY3xSEN0
— Ole Miss Women’s BB (@OleMissWBB) February 9, 2024
Despite the early run from the Rebels, Texas A&M would not go away that easily. The Aggies battled back to tie things at 13 with under two minutes left in the first quarter.
Ole Miss has played point guard by committee since KK Deans went down early in the year. In the first, the Rebels filled the box score by committee, instead, as six of the eight Rebels who touched the floor all scored a bucket.
The second quarter was much different offensively for the Rebels. Ole Miss shot 5-for-15 in the quarter as the recently ‘red-hot’ Marquesha Davis could not get things going tonight.
The Aggies ended the quarter strong with five points in the last minute, allowing them to take a 35-29 lead over Ole Miss into the halftime break.
She’s been waiting on this one 🤩 @SnuddaC | #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/1jwHV6LcBy
— Ole Miss Women’s BB (@OleMissWBB) February 9, 2024
“I thought they were fighting in the 1st quarter. I just thought we had a run, and then it was their time to have a run, and that was the game. This game is a game of runs. I just thought even when they had the lead, I thought we were fighting. We were missing layups, we missed 10 layups in the first half.”
~ Coach Yo on the first half performance
In the final seconds of the half, three technical fouls were given out with two of them being given to Kennedy Todd-Williams. The Rebel guard was ejected from the game after leading the Rebels with six points and three steals at the half.
Coach Yo was asked about the double technical fouls in the post game. “They said that she got a technical foul and an intentional foul. I did not see the intentional foul.”
Second Half
The next half of play was all Texas A&M from the start.
With Todd-Williams no longer on the floor, the Rebels were down one of their primary ball handlers and it clearly caused problems for Ole Miss.
Midway through the third, the Aggies went on a 14-0 run over the next five minutes as Ole Miss could not buy a bucket. The Rebels were outscored 21-7 in the quarter.
“This is called women’s basketball. So that is what we’re gonna work on, being women about it. I’m just really disappointed in my group’s effort. I gotta look in the mirror, my staff, and then we go from there. But we gotta work to fix it.”
~ Coach Yo on the second half effort
Snudda Collins and Madison Scott combined for 20 of the 24 second half points for the Rebels as the rest of the lineup went just 2 for 6 from the field after the break.
Davis did not attempt a shot in the second half, the Rebel guard only played 21 minutes tonight, not seeing much time in the second half.
Texas A&M outrebounded the Rebels 41 to 29 as well, grabbing 16 offensive boards along the way.
Up Next
Coach Yo and the Lady Rebs will travel to Gainesville next to take on the Florida Gators on Thursday, February 15th. Tipoff is set for 5 pm CT with no television slot scheduled yet.
Evelyn Van Pelt
Evelyn has covered sports for over two decades, beginning her journalism career as a sports writer for a newspaper in Austin, Texas. She attended Texas A&M and majored in English. Evelyn's love for Ole Miss began when her daughter Katie attended the university on a volleyball scholarship. Evelyn created the Rebel Walk in 2013 and has served as publisher and managing editor since its inception.
