The University of Mississippi Athletics
REBELOG: Women's Basketball's Alliesha Easley 12.23
12/24/2008 | Women's Basketball
OleMissSports.com's Rebelogs provide fans with a look inside the life of Ole Miss student-athletes. A sophomore and starting guard for the women's basketball team, Alliesha Easley is among the Rebels that will be blogging throughout the 2008-09 season, which continues Dec. 29-30 with the Ole Miss Holiday Classic at Tad Smith Coliseum.
December 23, 2008
Hello Rebel Fans, I’m writing after we just got home from Orlando where we played two games in the UCF Holiday Tournament. We went 1-1 over the weekend after beating UCF in the first game before we lost in the title game to Wake Forest. Overall, I thought we played pretty good in both games, but we just weren’t able to match WakeForest’s intensity in the second game. Wake Forest was a really good team that hasn’t lost a game yet, and we really wanted to be that team that gave them their first loss. Our trip to Orlando was probably the best trip we will take all year, and I know all of us had a lot of time. We left Thursday morning and left from Memphis and flew straight to Orlando. It was so nice to get off the plane and be welcomed by clear skies and temperatures that were in the 70s and 80s. When we left Memphis it was cold and nasty, and it was nice to spend a few days in December in warm weather. Thursday night was a lot of fun because we got to go to Downtown Disney and spend a few hours shopping and taking in all the attractions that were there. It was a really good opportunity for me to get some of my Christmas shopping down because I have a lot of people on my list this year. The weather at night was awesome and it was really cool being able to walk around at night in December with short sleeve shirts on. On Friday, we had some down town to rest and get ready for our games since we weren’t play that day. We spent a few hours practice at the UCF Arena because we had to prepare to play against two really good teams. It was my first time to play in their arena and I really like the way it looked on both the inside and outside. I was ready to get on the court Saturday and take on UCF in our first game. We didn’t really play a very good first half against UCF, and it really seemed like they couldn’t miss. They were bombing three-pointers against us even though we were playing pretty good defense. We only trailed by three points at halftime and we knew that wouldn’t be able to continue shooting that way in the second half. We came out really hot in the second half and played the way we knew we could. Everyone was hitting shots and we ended up taking the lead midway in the half and never gave it back. Bianca and Liz both hit four three-pointers for us and they were huge for us. At the end of the game, we talked about how we know if we can play that way against everyone we have a good chance to have a special season. Sunday against Wake Forest we really felt like we had a great chance to beat them, but we played very bad and we just couldn’t get stops when we needed them. They were up on us by double digits in the first half, but we made a late run in over the final three minutes to cut it to three points as we went into halftime. We actually scored the first basket of the second half to trail by only one, but they continued to hit shots on offense and never let us really get back into the game. It was a very frustrating loss because we wanted to hand them that first loss of the year and take home another tournament championship. After the game on Sunday most of the team went to Disney World and the Magic Kingdom to ride some of the rides. It was like a 45 minute ride from the hotel, but it was worth it because I was really looking forward to going. The Magic Kingdom Castle looked beautiful because it was covered in white Christmas lights. They also had a huge Christmas tree in the middle of the park and it was decorated with tons of lights and ornaments. There was also fake snow falling from the sky to make it feel more like Christmas. It didn’t really feel like Christmas since everyone was wearing shorts and short sleeve shirts, but it was still nice to be there during the holidays. We only had three hours to ride rides because the park closed at 11 p.m. and we got there a little after 7 p.m. Everyone in the group went straight to SpaceMountain because it is probably the best ride there. The wait was over an hour, but we didn’t care because everyone wanted to ride it. Once we finally got on the ride, I didn’t know what to expect because everyone had told me that you can’t see anything and that it would be completely dark like you were in space. I think I screamed the entire ride and everyone could hear me, but it was a lot of fun. After that, we all rode some more rides for the next two hours and then met back up to return to the bus and head back to the hotel. We had to be up the next morning at 4 a.m. to catch our flight home. The flight home was fine and we actually got into Memphis about 7:30 in the morning and I went straight to my house from the airport. I am so glad I get to spend the next few days with my family and the people I love. These next few days at home are going to be just what I need. I’m looking forward to some time off, but I know that we still have business to take care of when we all return back to Oxford. We have our own tournament coming up and we all know we have to protect our court and win both of our games. We want all you fans to come out and see us play in our tournament. We have a great team this year and we want to show you what we can do. Merry Christmas!
