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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
17-12 (7-9SEC)
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Mississippi State
26-5 (11-5SEC)
Rebels Drop Road Contest to Mississippi State
3/1/2015 | Women's Basketball
STARKVILLE, Miss. --The Ole Miss women's basketball team battled instate rival and No. 11/13 ranked Mississippi State the entire afternoon, but came up short in a 55-47 loss to the Bulldogs in the regular-season finale at the Hump in Starkville. Tia Faleru recorded her second straight double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Rebel offense. Gracie Frizzell also added 11 points for her third straight game in double figures.
Ole Miss will be the No. 8 or No. 9 seed in the SEC Tournament by virtue of its regular-season finish. The Rebels who are 17-12, 7-9 SEC, posted the most wins -both overall and SEC - since the 2009-10 season and ensured themselves of a winning record and a berth in the postseason.
Out of the break, Gracie Frizzell (Little Rock, Arkansas) drilled a triple and added a bucket for the first five points of the half and Ole Miss went to work on the defensive end. With the State lead at 10 points, tallied buckets from Erika Sisk (Oxford, Miss.) and Kelsey Briggs (Memphis, Tennessee) got the lead to eight midway through the half.
Trailing by 10 with 6:12 left, Ole Miss started putting the ball on the floor and driving, which got them to the line where they were able to get the lead down to seven points in the final five minutes but couldn't find a way to get over the Hump as the Bulldogs won the game by eight points
Ole Miss opened the contest on a tear going up 7-0 in the first five minutes of the game before a triple from Morgan William ended the Mississippi State scoring drought. The Rebels hung their hat on defense in the first four minutes of the game and forced the home team into four early turnovers with three points off those turnovers.
Out of the first media timeout, Mississippi State used a 6-0 run highlighted by triples from Dillingham, William and Vivians to tie the game at 9 at the 11:29 mark of the first half. The Rebel offense, which started so strong, cooled midway through the half, as Ole Miss mustered just one bucket in their last seven tries, but out of the under eight media timeout, Ole Miss used four points from Faleru and Danielle McCray (West Palm Beach, Florida) to keep the game within one possession.
With the home team holding a 19-15 lead at the 3:58 mark, Mississippi State closed the half on a 9-1 run to take a 28-16 lead into halftime. The first-half difference was timely three-point shooting from Mississippi State, who was 3-of-8 from long range while Ole Miss was just 1-of-3 and shot just 29.2 percent in the first half.
Ole Miss will await finalization of its seed for the 2015 SEC Tournament held at the Verizon Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Rebels will open action on Thursday, as they will finish the regular season in the top 10 of the SEC standings
REBEL SIDELINES: Gracie Frizzell started her sixth game and fourth straight in today's contest, Ole Miss is 5-1 with Frizzell in the lineup ... Ole Miss moved to 2-1 in games televised on Fox Sports Net with today's win ... Ole Miss' 16 first-half points are the fewest all season ... Faleru recoded her second straight double-double and her 33r career double-double in the contest.
