The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebels Look For Fourth Straight Win Sunday At ODU
12/4/2009 | Women's Basketball
Ole Miss (6-1) vs. Old Dominion (0-5)
Sunday 12.6.09 | 12:00 p.m. CT
Norfolk, Va. | Ted Constant Convocation Center (8,600)
MEDIA
Live Stats: OleMissSports.com
Live Radio: RebelVision (Gary Darby, play-by-play; Alliesha Easley, analyst)
OXFORD, Miss. - The Ole Miss women's basketball team looks for its fourth straight win and fourth road victory of the season when the Rebels travel to Norfolk, Va., to take on Old Dominion Sunday at noon from the Ted Constant Convocation Center.
Ole Miss (6-1) enters the weekend following an impressive 70-51 win Wednesday night at UALR in which All-SEC guard Bianca Thomas became the 23rd player in school history to score over 1,000 career points. Thomas finished with a game-high 29 points and has now scored 1,006 points during her career at Ole Miss.
Thomas also etched her name in the Ole Miss record book by hitting seven three-pointers against the Trojans to tie the school record for the most treys in a game. She joins Becky Myatt and Regan Seybert as the only three players in school history to accomplish the feat. Thomas, however, is the only Rebel ever to hit seven three-pointers in a game twice, duplicating the performance last season at Mississippi State.
Kayla Melson returned to the Ole Miss lineup after missing the previous two games and finished just shy of a double-double with 14 points and nine rebounds to go along with five assists.
The Rebels are led on the offensive end by Thomas' 23.6 points per game, ranking her first in the SEC and ninth in the nation. She recently recorded her 15th career game with at least 20 points Wednesday against UALR. Thomas also leads the SEC with 4.1 three-pointers per game and is shooting 44.6 percent from down town. She is also first on the team with 6.3 rebounds per game.
Melson pours in 11.8 points per game and averages 6.6 points per game. She dishes out more assists per game than any other player in the SEC, but does not appear in the league rankings because she has not played in 75 percent of the team's game. Fellow guard Shantell Black averages 8.9 points per game and ranks second in the conference with 5.9 assists per game.
Old Dominion enters play this weekend sporting an 0-5 record after falling to Louisville 82-75 in its most recent game. The 0-5 start is the worst start in school history. The Lady Monarchs' record might be a bit misleading however, as four of their five opponents were either ranked or receiving votes at the time of the game. Old Dominion has managed to keep only one of its five losses within double digits, and the Lady Monarchs are being outscored by their opponents by 20.0 points per game. Two of their five losses have come by 33 points.
Individually, junior guard Jasmine Parker leads the team with 12.4 points per game and 4.6 assists per game. Fellow junior guard Shadasia Green is second on the team with 12.0 points per game, while sophomore post Tia Lewis averages 11.4 points per game and a team-high 7.6 rebounds per game.
Ole Miss and Old Dominion will be meeting for the fifth time when the two teams tipoff Sunday afternoon. Each team has won two games in the all-time series that dates back to the 1979-80 season. Old Dominion won the first two games of the series, but the Rebels have won the last two games, which includes a 79-72 victory last season at Tad Smith Coliseum. In that game, Thomas scored 20 points, including 15 in the second half, and went 4-for-4 from the free throw line over the final 20 seconds to lead the Rebels to victory.
Sunday will be just the second time the two schools have met in Norfolk. In the first meeting, Old Dominion claimed a 79-58 win over Ole Miss on Nov. 21, 1979.
Ole Miss has only played a total of seven games against teams from the Colonial Athletic Association and the Rebels own a 5-2 overall record in those games. In addition, the Rebels have won four straight games against CAA competition and have not lost a game to the league since falling 58-46 to Old Dominion in Oxford on Jan. 24, 1981. In fact, Old Dominion is the only team from the CAA to have ever beaten Ole Miss. The Rebels have also earned wins over CAA foes Delaware, Georgia State and James Madison.
