The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebels Welcome Arkansas To Oxford Sunday
1/9/2010 | Women's Basketball
Ole Miss (10-5, 1-1 SEC) vs. Arkansas (8-7, 0-2 SEC)
Sunday 1.10.10 | 2:00 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. - After securing its first conference win of the season Wednesday night, the Ole Miss women's basketball team looks to make it two in a row when the Rebels host Arkansas Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. from Tad Smith Coliseum.
Ole Miss (10-5, 1-1 SEC) downed Alabama 70-56 Wednesday night and has now beaten the Crimson Tide in nine of the last 10 meetings and five straight at the Tad Pad.
All-SEC guard Bianca Thomas scored a game-high 25 points and tallied six rebounds and three assists to help lead the Rebels to victory. It was the 20th time in her career and 10th time this season that she has scored at least 20 points in a game.
Junior guard Kayla Melson finished with a career-high 19 points to surpass her previous career-high of 17 points she collected earlier this season against Memphis. The Montgomery, Ala., native has scored in double figures in five straight games and is averaging 14.2 points per game during the stretch.
Senior forward LaKendra Phillips grabbed a career-high nine rebounds, while senior guard Shantell Black finished with four assists and upped her career total to 458 to move into fifth place on the school's all-time list to surpass the 455 helpers recorded by Jackie Martin from 1987-92.
The Rebels enter the weekend averaging 77.6 points per game and are led on the offensive end by Thomas' 21.4 points per game. The Henderson, Tenn., native leads the SEC and ranks 11th in the nation in scoring, while ranking second in the conference with 3.6 three-pointers per game.
Melson stands second on the team with 12.8 points per game and ranks second in the SEC with 5.8 assists per game, while Black adds 10.2 points per game and is third in the league with 4.7 assists per game. The duo helps the Rebels rank second in the conference with 16.3 assists per game.
Arkansas enters the weekend with an 8-7 overall record and an 0-2 mark in the league. The Razorbacks closed the non-conference season with two straight wins, but lost both of their league games thus far to open the conference portion of the schedule 0-2 for the third straight season. Arkansas opened conference play with a home loss to Florida before falling 65-38 Thursday night at home to LSU. The Razorbacks have failed to score 60 points in either conference game this season and are averaging just 45.5 points per game during SEC play.
Individually, sophomore guard Lyndsay Harris leads the Razorbacks with 11.8 points per game, but also owns a team-high 58 turnovers. Senior guard Charity Ford pours in 11.0 points per game and is second in the SEC with a .909 free throw percentage. Sophomore guard C'eira Ricketts stands third on the team with 10.9 points per game and ranks second in the SEC with 2.7 steals per game. Sophomore forward Ashley Daniels leads the Hogs and ranks 13th in the SEC with 6.8 rebounds per game.
Ole Miss and Arkansas will be meeting for the 29th time when the two teams tip-off Sunday afternoon. The Rebels own a 20-8 overall record in the all-time series with Arkansas that dates back to the 1985-86 season. The Rebels have enjoyed a great deal of success against the Razorbacks in recent years. In fact, Ole Miss has won eight of the last nine meetings between the two and have never lost to the Razorbacks in Oxford.
The Rebels are 12-0 all-time against Arkansas in Oxford and eight of those wins have come by double digits. In the most recent meeting, the Rebels defeated Arkansas 65-60 last season in the first round of the SEC Tournament. Thomas hit six three-pointers and scored a career-high 31 points to help Ole Miss reach at least the second round of the SEC Tournament for the sixth consecutive season.
