The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebels Battle UALR Wednesday In Little Rock
12/1/2009 | Women's Basketball
Ole Miss (5-1) vs. UALR (3-3)
Wednesday 12.2.09 | 5:15 p.m. CT
Little Rock, Ark. | Jack Stephens Center (5,600)
MEDIA
Live Stats: OleMissSports.com
Live Radio: RebelVision (Gary Darby, play-by-play; Alliesha Easley, analyst)
OXFORD, Miss. - In search of its third consecutive win, the Ole Miss women's basketball team travels to Little Rock, Ark., to take on UALR Wednesday afternoon at 5:15 p.m. from the Jack Stephens Center.
Ole Miss (5-1) enters Wednesday's game coming off a pair of wins over the weekend that gave the Rebels the Florida Atlantic/Boca Bridge Hotel Tournament championship. The Rebels opened the event with a lopsided 78-33 win over San Jose State, holding the Spartans to the second-fewest point total in school history. Katorra Lewis finished with a career-high 18 points, while Whitney Hameth added a career-high 15 points to lead the Rebels to victory.
In the championship game, the Rebels knocked off tournament host Florida Atlantic 80-57 behind the 30 points of All-SEC guard Bianca Thomas, marking the second time this season she has tallied at least 30 points. Sophomore Kayla Holloway turned in her best game in an Ole Miss uniform and finished with a career-high 10 points and a career-high 10 rebounds for her first double-double as a Rebel.
Thomas went on to claim tournament MVP honors after averaging 20.5 points per game over the weekend, while Shantell Black was also selected to the all-tournament team after averaging 7.0 assists per game.
Thomas continues to pace the Rebels on the offensive end and leads the team with 22.7 points per game and 6.8 rebounds per game. She enters the week leading the SEC in scoring, while ranking 17th in rebounding. In addition, Thomas has scored 977 points during her career at Ole Miss and needs just 23 points Wednesday to become the 23rd player in school history to score 1,000 or more career points.
Junior point guard Kayla Melson is second on the team in scoring and pours in 11.3 points per game to go along with a team-high 7.0 assists per game, while Black is second on the team and third in the SEC with 6.3 assists per game. The duo have helped Ole Miss lead the SEC in assists with 18.7 per game.
UALR (3-3) enters the week having dropped two straight games after opening the season 3-1 after its first four games. The Trojans went 0-2 last week at the St. Mary's Hilton Tournament and dropped games to both Nebraska and Drake. UALR opened the season with a 67-58 setback at Oklahoma State.
Individually, junior forward Chastity Reed leads the team with 23.5 points per game and 9.2 rebounds per game. Reed ranks second in the Sun Belt in scoring and sixth in rebounding. Senior guard Kim Sitzmann is second on the team with 8.5 points per game.
As a team, the Trojans have won seven straight regular season home games and have not lost at the Jack Stephens Center since falling to Middle Tennessee on Jan. 17, 2009.
Ole Miss and UALR will be meeting for the sixth time when the two teams tipoff Wednesday afternoon. The Rebels own a 4-1 overall record against the Trojans in the all-time series that dates back to the 1999-2000 season. Ole Miss won the first four meetings before UALR picked up its first win in the series with a 64-61 overtime win last season at Tad Smith Coliseum. It was the first time any school from the state of Arkansas had won a women's basketball game inside of the Tad Pad.
Wednesday will also be the second time the two teams have met in Little Rock. In the previous meeting, Ole Miss claimed a 67-59 win on Dec. 3, 2002.
Ole Miss has enjoyed a great deal of success when facing teams from the Sun Belt. In fact, the Rebels are 57-16 all-time against the league. Ole Miss enters Wednesday's game 1-0 against the conference this season after defeating Florida Atlantic 80-57 Saturday in the championship game of the Florida Atlantic/Boca Bridge Hotel Holiday Tournament.
