Ole Miss Women’s Basketball Set to Battle No. 3 South Carolina to Close Grueling Stretch

OXFORD, Miss. — The highly-publicized grind of four games within one week is finally nearing its conclusion for Coach Yo’s women’s basketball team. The Rebels will close a brutal stretch of four games in seven days on Sunday morning with a road matchup against No. 3 South Carolina Gamecocks, arguably the best team in the country in one of the premier venues in women’s college basketball.

The run of four games in seven days has tested this team unlike any other, as Coach Yo’s squad is the only team faced with such a stretch thanks to the late January winter storm that battered Oxford for weeks. The fact that all four games came against AP-ranked teams projected to be in the NCAA Tournament didn’t make things any easier—something that was painfully evident Thursday night at the SJB Pavilion, when Ole Miss suffered a heartbreaking 78–70 loss to LSU after leading 69–59 with roughly six and a half minutes remaining. LSU closed the game on a stunning 19–1 run, while Ole Miss went 0-for-17 from the floor in the fourth quarter, simply unable to put the ball through the net at all (with the exception of a few free throws) as fatigue began to take its toll.

The Challenge of Colonial Life Arena

Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks have looked almost invincible at home this season where they’ve yet to lose, having averaged 92.6 points per game with a staggering 40.6-point average margin of victory at home. All but one of their home wins have come by 22 points or more, underscoring the sheer amount of difficulty opposing teams have had merely hanging with the Gamecocks in Colonial Life Arena, much less having a legitimate chance of leaving Columbia victorious.

That type of pure dominance is all over the stat books. Staley’s squad averages 87.4 points per game, third-best nationally and second in the SEC, while allowing just 56.3 points per contest, the best mark in the conference. The Gamecocks shoot 51.2 percent from the floor—best in the SEC and third in the nation—and hold opponents to 33.7 percent shooting, also best in the league.

From beyond the arc, South Carolina connect at 37.7 percent, while limiting opponents t 26.6 percent, both of which are numbers that are (surprise, surprise) league-bests. Even on the glass, South Carolina controls games, pulling down 42.6 rebounds per contest, fourth-best in the SEC. Long story short, South Carolina ranks near the top of the conference in just about every major statistical category both offensively and defensively—numbers that shouldn’t come as a surprise for one of the most dominant programs in women’s college basketball over the past decade.

Defense Travels — But Will the Offense?

Ole Miss enters the matchup with its own defensive credentials, which will have come through for Coach Yo’s squad if they plan on hanging tough with the Gamecocks. The Rebels allow 59.4 points per game, good for fifth-best in the SEC, while also ranking near the top of the league in turnovers forced and shots blocked, continuing a trend of McPhee-McCuin-coached teams that have prioritized defense first.

Offensively, consistency has been harder to come by for the Rebels. Ole Miss averages 77.2 points per game, sixth in the SEC, but ranks 12th in field-goal percentage at 44% and has shot under 40 percent in four of its five SEC losses, including road games against Alabama, Kentucky, and Thursday’s loss to LSU (which, as mentioned before can be owed to the 0-for-17 shooting from the floor in the fourth quarter, which, in fairness, was because of that late-game fatigue from play so much in such short time). From three-point range, the Rebels are shooting 28.1 percent, second-worst in the conference — a number that becomes magnified against South Carolina’s elite perimeter defense, making clear that Ole Miss’s hopes will have to rely on getting in the paint wherever and whenever possible.

Cotie McMahon and the Moment

As has been the case all season, the Rebels’ gameplan will begin with Cotie McMahon. The star forward ranks third in the SEC in scoring at 20.7 points per game and has shown she can rise to the moment against elite competition. She delivered an all-time performance headlined with 39 points in the win over Tennessee and followed it up with 25 points against LSU, even as she and the Rebels as a whole struggled late. Against a South Carolina frontcourt loaded with size, depth, and physicality, McMahon will need to deliver her most complete performance yet—not only scoring, but rebounding through contact and creating opportunities should the Gamecock defense offer one.

Perspective, Stakes, and the Bigger Picture

Beating one of the nation’s best and most historically storied teams in their house would be a near-impossible task for any team, especially this season. For Ole Miss, a team that has not beaten the Gamecocks since 2010, it would undeniably be one of the biggest regular-season wins in program history (if not the biggest in that department), and would also be one of the biggest upsets of the year in women’s college basketball. While the odds are stacked against Coach Yo’s squad, the good news, of course, is that this is by no means a must-win game for Ole Miss who currently sits on the four-seed line (the lowest seed a team can get and still host in the NCAA Tournament) according to Charlie Creme’s latest bracketology. A loss to one of the best teams in the country, that has only two losses on the year, on the road no less would do very little to knock the Rebels’ standing in the eyes of the selection committee.

GameDay Spotlight and Final Test

Aside from the game itself, the added flair of having College GameDay in town for this matchup is certainly a historic moment, as it’ll be the first time that any Ole Miss basketball team, men’s or women’s, will be featured on the basketball edition of the iconic pregame show—a testament to the meteoric rise the program has undergone since the arrival of McPhee-McCuin in Oxford in 2018. And, as we all know, games are won on the court, not in the stat books, so anything can still happen. However, it’ll be incumbent on both the players and McPhee-McCuin herself to block out any outside noise surrounding her recent Twitter spat with the football team’s former coach and be prepared to have both herself and her team locked in and ready to deliver its best performance possible.

If nothing else, Thursday offers clarity. Against a complete, battle-tested South Carolina team that punishes every lapse, Ole Miss will learn exactly where it stands—and how much higher its ceiling might still be. One way or another, this is a team that has shown time and again that no matter the result, fans can always be assured that these young women will always leave everything on the court.

Ole Miss will take on South Carolina on Sunday, February 22 at Colonial Life Arena at 11:00 am CST on ESPN.