The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebels Host Rival MSU On ?Pack The Pad? Night
1/21/2010 | Women's Basketball
Ole Miss (12-5, 3-1 SEC) vs. Mississippi State (12-6, 3-2 SEC)
Thursday 1.21.10 | 7:00 p.m. CT
Oxford, Miss. | Oxford, Miss. (9,061)
MEDIA
Live Stats: OleMissSports.com
Live Video: RebelVision
Live Radio: RebelVision (Gary Darby, play-by-play; Alliesha Easley, analyst)
OXFORD, Miss. - The Ole Miss women's basketball team looks to secure its fourth straight win when the Rebels welcome in-state rival Mississippi State to Oxford Thursday night at 7 p.m. from Tad Smith Coliseum in this year's designated "Pack the Pad" game.
The first 1,000 fans in attendance will receive free t-shirts to wear during the game courtesy of Oxford T-shirt company and Snackbar. In addition, all Ole Miss faculty and staff will receive free tickets, and children in a youth league jersey and their families will also earn free admission.
In an effort to increase attendance at women's basketball games across the country, the NCAA instituted an annual "Pack the House" promotion that is now entering its third year of existence. Last year, 184 schools participated, drawing more than 559,000 fans to Division I women's basketball games.
Ole Miss (12-5, 3-1 SEC) enters the week in third place in the conference standings after its 80-71 upset win over LSU Sunday afternoon. All-SEC guard Bianca Thomas scored a career-high 42 points and set a new single game Tad Smith Coliseum record for points scored, surpassing the 40 points recorded by Tennessee's Shelia Collins in 1985.
Thomas is one of only six players this season to have a game of at least 40 points. In addition, she joins former Ole Miss associate head coach Peggie Gillom as the only two players in school history to accomplish the feat. Gillom scored a school-record 45 points at Tennessee in 1978.
Thomas enters Thursday's game first in the SEC and seventh in the nation with 22.9 points per game and has scored at least 20 points in five straight games. The Henderson, Tenn., native is also second in the conference and fourth in the nation with 3.6 three-pointers made per game. She is just eight three-pointers shy of moving into second place all-time at Ole Miss and 13 treys short of setting a new single season record.
Ole Miss junior guard Kayla Melson dished out a career-high 13 assists Sunday against LSU and currently leads the SEC and stands eighth in the nation with 6.5 assists per game. The Montgomery, Ala., native also ranks second on the team with 12.3 points per game.
Senior guard Shantell Black is third on the team with 10.2 points per game and ranks third in the SEC with 4.8 assists per game. Black leads the league with a .490 shooting percentage from three-point range and has hit 57.1 percent of her triples since the start of conference play.
Mississippi State enters the week with a 12-6 overall record and a 3-2 mark inside the league. The Lady Bulldogs lost a home game to Florida 55-52 Sunday in their most recent outing to suffer their second straight conference home loss. The Lady Bulldogs are 1-2 at home in SEC play, but are a perfect 2-0 on the road with wins at Auburn and Arkansas.
Individually, the Lady Bulldogs are led on the offensive end of the floor by senior guard Alexis Rack. Rack ranks first on the team, second in the SEC and 16th in the nation with 19.8 points per game. Rack also leads the league with 3.7 three-pointers per game. Fellow senior Armelie Lumanu is second on the team with 13.3 points per game and is tied for the team lead with Chanel Mokango with 7.1 rebounds per game. Junior forward Mary Kathryn Govero is third on the team with 11.6 points per game.
Ole Miss and Mississippi State will be meeting for the 78th time when the two teams tip-off Thursday evening. The Rebels own a 60-17 overall record in the all-time series with Mississippi State that dates back to the 1974-75 season. Last season, the Lady Bulldogs won both meetings with the Rebels and won for just the seventh time ever in Oxford.
Even with last season's home loss, Ole Miss is 26-7 all-time against Mississippi State in Oxford. In fact, the Rebels won the first 23 meetings between the two in Oxford and didn't lose at home to the Lady Bulldogs until 2000. MSU, however, has won three of the last four meetings at Tad Smith Coliseum.
