Rebels Open Regular Season vs. Norfolk State

			OLE MISS (0-0, 0-0 SEC) vs. NORFOLK STATE (0-0, 0-0 MEAC) Tuesday, Nov. 6 • 6 PM • Oxford, Miss. The Pavilion at Ole Miss (9,500) National Nacho Day
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OXFORD, Miss. – Ole Miss women's basketball officially enters a new era when it plays host to Norfolk State for the tipoff of the 2018-19 season on Tuesday night at The Pavilion, the first regular season game under first-year head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin.

TEAM FACTS

Ole Miss Rebels (0-0, 0-0 SEC)
Head Coach: Yolett McPhee-McCuin • 1st Season at Ole Miss • 94-63 career record (6th Season)

Norfolk State Spartans (0-0, 0-0 MEAC)
Head Coach: Larry Vickers • 4th Season at NSU (36-34) • 36-34 career record (4th season)

ON THE AIR

Television/Online: SEC Network +
Play-by-Play: Seth Austin (@SethAustinTV)
Color: Lindsay Roy (@roylindsaym)

OLE MISS RADIO

Radio: 105.1 / 105.5 FM
Play-by-Play: Graham Doty (@GrahamDoty)
Audio: OleMissSports.com/Watch

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SCOUTING NORFOLK STATE

Series History
First Meeting

2017-18 Record: 18-11, 11-5 MEAC
• First winning season in 16 years
• Third-best season in program history

Top Returning Scorer (2017-18)
Raven Russell • 11.0 PPG, .455 FG%

Top Returning Rebounder (2017-18)
Khadedra Croker • 6.6 RPG

Team Notables
• Spartans return four starters and seven letterwinners
• Returns 66.5 percent of minutes played, 62.7 percent of scoring
• Three Preseason All-MEAC selections
• Lost First-Team All-MEAC member Kayla Roberts (14.2 PPG, 7.9 RPG)

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TEAM NOTES

OLE MISS IN SEASON OPENERS
In 44 seasons of action, Rebel women's basketball holds a 38-6 all-time record in season openers, which yields a .864 winning percentage. Of those 44 games, Ole Miss holds a 25-1 game in season openers at home -- with the lone loss coming against Clemson on Nov. 16, 1998 (76-54) -- a 5-5 record on the road, and a perfect 8-0 record at neutral sites.

REBELS ROLL IN EXHIBITION
Five Rebels reached double-digit scoring en route to a season-opening 73-45 exhibition victory against LeMoyne-Owen at The Pavilion at Ole Miss on Friday.

"I was excited to get our young ladies the opportunity to play a full game," said Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin. "There were some things that I saw that I liked. I like the fact that we were on the floor a lot, I got to play everybody, and we were diving for loose balls."

Redshirt senior La'Karis Salter made her Ole Miss debut, leading the team in scoring with 12 points and six assists at the forward position. Other noteworthy debuts included redshirt freshman Mimi Reid (11 points, eight rebounds, five assists), junior Jhileiya Dunlap (10 points, seven rebounds), and redshirt senior Crystal Allen (11 points, five rebounds).

Fellow senior Shandricka Sessom returned to the floor following a season-ending knee injury last year, scoring 10 points in the effort, while senior Cecilia Muhate also looked strong in her first action of 2018-19 with six points and seven boards.

Ole Miss got off to a hot start and never looked back, scoring 16 unanswered points over the first 4:24 of action toward a 20-6 advantage by the end of the quarter, with eight eight points alone coming from Allen. The second frame played out similarly, as the Rebels went on a 12-2 run to start the quarter before closing out the first half with a 42-15 lead.

A NEW ERA
Ole Miss women's basketball stands on the cusp of a new era with Yolett McPhee-McCuin entering her first season as the ninth head coach in program history. McPhee-McCuin was named head coach on April 4, 2018 and introduced in a public ceremony two days later on April 6.

McPhee-McCuin, who also serves as the national coach for her native Bahamas, comes to Ole Miss following five seasons at Jacksonville, where she took the Dolphins to heights never before glimpsed in the history of the program. Her JU teams notched three-straight 20-win seasons to close out her career there, despite Jacksonville only recording two seasons above the 20-win plateau prior to her arrival.

Yolett McPhee-McCuin Coaching Career:
2019-Pres. -- Ole Miss, Head Coach
2014-18 -- Jacksonville, Head Coach
2011-13 -- Clemson, Assistant Coach
2009-10 -- Pittsburgh, Assistant Coach
2008 -- Portland, Assistant Coach
2006-07 -- Ark.-Pine Bluff, Assistant Coach
2005 -- Frank Phillips College, Assistant Coach

Record at Jacksonville:

Total (Five Seasons): 94-63, 50-24 ASUN

2017-18
24-9, 12-2 (2nd ASUN)
ASUN Tournament Runners-Up
WNIT First Round

2016-17
23-9, 11-3 (3rd ASUN)
ASUN Tournament Runners-Up
WNIT First Round

2015-16
22-11, 11-3 (2nd ASUN)
ASUN Tournament Champions
NCAA Tournament First Round

2014-15
12-17, 6-8 (4th ASUN)

2013-14
13-17, 10-8 (5th ASUN)

NEW STAFF
McPhee-McCuin's first task once arriving in Oxford was to surround herself with a brand new coaching staff. For her first season, that cast includes Chris Ayers, Tony Greene, and Ole Miss All-American Armintie Herrington, who was promoted from her previous position as the Coordinator of Player Engagement.

Chris Ayers - First Season
• Spent a decade in the high school and AAU ranks prior
• Has coached more than 100 athletes who went on to play either collegiately, professionally or both
• Graduate manager at Georgia Tech in 2017-18

Tony Greene - First Season
• More than 20 years of experience collegiately
• Has been part of 11 total postseason berths
• Conference Player of the Year at Langston

Armintie Herrington - Fifth Season
• Seventh season on staff at Ole Miss, the fifth as an assistant coach after serving from 2009-12
• No. 3 pick in the 2007 WNBA Draft (Chicago Sky)
• In 2007, became second player in NCAA history with 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds, 400 assists and 400 steals

MORE NEW FACES
McPhee-McCuin has also brought on a new support staff, while keeping on sixth-year senior athletic trainer Meredith Pendergast.

Dana Rieger
Director of Operations

Tim Boeni
Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach

Michonné Gamble-Rivers
Coordinator of Player Development

Ed Mahan
Coordinator of Video Services

Chelsea Wolf
Assistant Director of On-Campus Recruiting

Sandy Dickinson
Recruiting Assistant

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INDIVIDUAL NOTES

REDEMPTION FOR SESSOM
Redshirt senior Shandricka Sessom returns for one last go-round in a Rebel jersey following a gruesome ACL injury vs. Middle Tennessee last season after just seven games played. Sessom, who was averaging 17.7 PPG at the time of her injury, was awarded a fifth year of eligibility on a medical hardship waiver.

MOVIN' ON UP
Shandricka Sessom enters 2018-19 as the active career scorer for the Rebels at 1,131 points -- currently the 24th-most in Ole Miss history. Sessom became the 28th 1,000-point scorer in program history vs. Texas A&M on Feb. 26, 2017. In her three full seasons of play, she averaged 341.6 points. If she were to maintain that average this season, Sessom would finish her career ranked 13th all-time.

Below are the next few ahead of her on the list:

19. Erika Sisk (2012-17) - 1,187
20. Charlotte Banks (1989-92) - 1,181
21. Shawn Goff (2005-09) - 1,179
22. Amber Watts (2001-05) - 1,169
23. Kris Stratton (1978-81) - 1,164

DEBUT FOR MIMI
Redshirt freshman Mimi Reid is also returning from injury, as a preseason Achilles injury sidelined her for the entirety of her freshman year in 2017-18. Reid was the No. 49 prospect in the nation coming out of The Patrick School in the Bronx.

SENIOR LEADERSHIP
Ole Miss has five seniors in 2018-19, with returnees Cecilia Muhate, Torri Lewis and Shandricka Sessom joining newcomer transfers Crystal Allen (UT-Arlington) and La'Karis Salter (Jacksonville) in the senior class.

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
Crystal Allen (UT-Arlington) and La'Karis Salter (Jacksonville) aren't the only newcomers to the Rebel roster. Other transfers include junior Jhileiya Dunlap from Gulf Coast State Community College, junior Shannon Dozier from Odessa College, and junior Deja Cage from DePaul. Cage will have to sit the 2018-19 season out due to NCAA rules.

Ole Miss also welcomed four new freshmen to Oxford this fall in Gabby Crawford (Munford, Tenn.), Mahogany Matthews (Raeford, N.C.), Taylor Smith (Marietta, Ga.) and Iyanla Kitchens (Lithonia, Ga.).

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MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

SMILE FOR THE CAMERA
Ole Miss will be featured on national television seven times during the regular season, with all seven appearances on SEC Network. First up is a home contest in the Big 12/SEC Contest vs. TCU on Nov. 29. Other home games on SEC Network include a Jan. 6 tilt vs. Arkansas and a Jan. 20 showdown with Florida. The remaining SEC Network games all come on the road at Kentucky (Jan. 13), at Mississippi State (Jan. 27), at Georgia (Feb. 18) and at Arkansas (Feb. 24). Additionally, all non-televised home games and road SEC games will be broadcast on SEC Network+.

TOUGH SLATE IN STORE AT PARADISE JAM
Ole Miss will spend some time on the beach over Thanksgiving for the Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands, but will face serious competition across three days of action. First up, the Rebels will square off against UConn on Nov. 22. The Huskies are coming off their 10th-straight trip to the Final Four after going 36-1, and they return three starters from that squad. Afterward, the Rebels will face Purdue (Nov. 23) and St. John's (Nov. 24) to close out their stay in St. Thomas. Ole Miss and UConn have never played, but the Rebels own the only victories in the series vs. Purdue (W, 62-54, Dec. 21, 1993, in Puerto Rico) and St. John's (W, 62-56, Dec. 29, 1992, in Jamaica, N.Y.).

Follow the Rebels on Twitter at @OleMissWBB, Facebook at Ole Miss WBB on Instagram at Ole MissWBB and on Snapchat with the handle @OleMissWBB. You can also follow head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin on Twitter at @YolettMcCuin

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Players Mentioned

Crystal Allen

Deja Cage

Gabby Crawford

Shannon Dozier

Iyanla Kitchens

Torri Lewis

Mahogany Matthews

Cecilia Muhate

Mimi Reid

La'Karis Salter

Shandricka Sessom

Taylor Smith

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