The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebels Open SEC Play Sunday At Vanderbilt
1/2/2010 | Women's Basketball
Ole Miss (9-4) at #16/18 Vanderbilt (11-2)
Sunday 1.3.10 | 2:00 p.m. CT
Nashville, Tenn. | Memorial Gymnasium (14,168)
MEDIA
Live TV: CSS (Matt Stewart, play-by-play; Joe Ciampi, analyst)
Live Stats: OleMissSports.com
Live Radio: RebelVision (Jeremy Kennedy, play-by-play; Alliesha Easley, analyst)
OXFORD, Miss. - The Ole Miss women's basketball team looks to run its winning streak to four games when the Rebels open Southeastern Conference play on the road against No. 16 Vanderbilt Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. from Memorial Gymnasium.
Ole Miss (9-4) closed the non-conference portion of the schedule Tuesday with an 87-38 win over Centenary. All-SEC guard Bianca Thomas finished with a game-high 23 points and tied the school record with seven three-pointers. It was the third time in her career that she has hit seven three-pointers in the same game.
Sophomore post Nikki Byrd tallied a career-high 19 points to go along with a game-high 12 rebounds to post her first career double-double. Kayla Holloway added a double-double of her own by finishing with 10 points and 10 rebounds to help the Rebels hold a 59-28 edge in rebounds over the Ladies.
Junior guard Kayla Melson added 13 points, five assists and five steals and now leads the SEC in assists with 6.0 per game.
Individually, Thomas leads the Rebels with 21.2 points per game and 5.5 rebounds per game. She enters the weekend ranked first in the SEC and 12th in the nation in scoring. In addition, Thomas is hitting 3.9 three-pointers per game to pace the league and rank fifth in the country.
Melson stands second on the team with 12.5 points per game and a team-high 66 assists, while Shantell Black pours in 10.4 points per game to go along with 5.0 assists per game.
Vanderbilt enters conference play with an 11-2 overall record after falling to Notre Dame 74-69 in its last game Thursday night. Prior to the Notre Dame game, the Commodores had won four straight games. Their only other setback this season was a 66-60 home loss to Bowling Green.
Senior guard Merideth Marsh leads the Commodores and ranks ninth in the SEC with 14.2 points per game. Junior guard Jence Rhoads is second on the team with 12.8 points per game and stands second in the SEC with 5.8 assists per game. Junior forward Hanna Tuomi averages 12.3 points per game and is first on the team and is 15th in the conference with 6.6 rebounds per game.
Ole Miss and Vanderbilt will be meeting for the 37th time when the two teams tip-off Sunday afternoon. The Commodores own a 22-14 overall record in the all-time series with Ole Miss that dates back to the 1977-78 season. The Rebels, however, had not enjoyed much success against Vanderbilt in games played in Nashville. In fact, Ole Miss is 3-12 all-time against Vanderbilt in Nashville and have not won in Memorial Gymnasium since Jan. 8, 1987.
In the most recent meeting, however, Ole Miss upset the No. 18 Commodores last season in Oxford 71-69 on a game-winning layup from guard Melson. Thomas scored a game-high 25 points and hit five three-pointers for the Rebels.
Ole Miss has enjoyed a great deal of success over the years in its SEC opener. In fact, the Rebels are 18-10 all-time in SEC openers. Last season, Ole Miss opened the conference schedule with a 62-54 win over Georgia at Tad Smith Coliseum to snap a four-game losing streak to the Lady Bulldogs.
