Career Days for Coach Yo, Crystal Allen in 82-69 Win Against North Florida

OXFORD, Miss. – Nothing was going to slow down senior Crystal Allen on Friday, as the graduate transfer scored the most points by anyone in the SEC this season to help lead the Ole Miss women's basketball team to an 82-69 win over North Florida at The Pavilion – the 100th career win for first-year Rebel head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin.

Ole Miss (6-8) scored a season-high 82 points, shot 50 percent from the field and drained a season-high 14 three-pointers to help secure victory over the Ospreys (5-6). The Rebels dominated the glass by a margin of 48-29 and tied a season-high with 24 assists on 29 made field goals (82.8 percent).

The milestone win came as a shock to McPhee-McCuin, who just recently realized she was getting close to the century mark. An added bonus to today's victory for her was that it came against an old rival in North Florida. McPhee-McCuin, a five-year veteran of the Atlantic Sun Conference, is now 12-0 all-time against the Ospreys after notching an 11-0 record in the crosstown rivalry during her tenure at Jacksonville University.

"I didn't know I was close to 100 wins until like two games ago, and I was miserable when someone told me because I know everyone kept waiting for me to get to 100," McPhee-McCuin said. "Sometimes I don't know how to feel with personal stuff like that because, for me, it's truly not about wins and losses. But for me only being a head coach for six years and having it in the early part of the season is something I'm sure I'll reflect on and be excited about."

Her career highlights were hardly the story during the game today, however, as Allen put on a stupefying show offensively to spearhead the Rebels. Allen ended up with a career-high 34 points on 11-of-17 shooting – which included a preposterous 9-of-15 clip from beyond the arc. Both her point total and her three-pointers stand as women's Pavilion records and the most by anyone in the SEC this year, with her nine treys also ranking tied for third in the NCAA.

"I just felt like I needed to focus," Allen said. "I know it's not fun to lose, and we've been on a short losing streak, so I just thought to myself right before the game that we have to come out on fire."

And come out on fire she did, hitting five of her nine threes in the first quarter alone. Her game today is the highest scoring output by a Rebel since current senior Torri Lewis scored 36 vs. New Orleans on Dec. 14, 2015 – the game in which Lewis set the school record for threes in a game with 10 (which still ties for the third-most in NCAA history). Allen's nine threes holds sole possession of second all-time on the Ole Miss single-game list behind Lewis.

That first quarter saw both teams light the net up for a combined 54 points at a 27-27 tie – the most points in any quarter by the Rebels this season. Ole Miss followed that up with the most points in any half with a 50-44 lead. The Rebels would stuff UNF to just 25 points in the second half en route to the 82-69 win.

Allen wasn't the only successful Rebel on the floor today, though, as 10 Rebels that played recorded at least two points and two rebounds apiece. Senior Shandricka Sessom tallied her sixth double-digit game in the last seven outings with a 13-point, six-rebound performance that included four three-pointers. Combined, Allen and Sessom drained 13 of the season-high 14 treys by the Rebels today (which rank tied for fifth all-time in a single-game and third in the SEC this year). After beginning the season averaging just 5.5 points in her first six games, Sessom has gone on to average 14.1 per game since.

Starting point guard Mimi Reid recorded her second double-digit assist game with 10 assists and seven points. Freshman forward Gabby Crawford chipped in with a strong outing as well with seven points and six rebounds. Ole Miss dominated North Florida 22-4 in bench scoring.

Ole Miss concludes a stout non-conference schedule at 6-8 overall, but now face the grueling gauntlet that is the SEC season. As of Dec. 25, a total of 10 of the 14 SEC teams ranked within the NCAA RPI top-100, with four in the top-25 and six in the top-50.

"The young ladies understand that I'm at a place where the gloves are off," McPhee-McCuin said. "The honeymoon stage is over. They know that my heart is in a good place, so I've been a wrecking ball the whole week. If anything, they wanted to win to get me off their backs. But it's not going to stop."

Ole Miss will open SEC play on the road at Missouri on Jan. 3 before returning home for the conference home opener vs. Arkansas on SEC Network on Jan. 6.

"I felt like we didn't play as well as we could have, we didn't hit our highest potential in non-conference, and I just feel like we need to go into conference on fire," Allen said. "We really don't have any excuse. We've been losing enough. I'm tired of losing, we're all tired of losing. It's time to get wins."

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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Team Stats

Crystal Allen

Shandricka Sessom

Mimi Reid

Gabby Crawford

Players Mentioned

Crystal Allen

Gabby Crawford

Torri Lewis

Mimi Reid

Shandricka Sessom

Players Mentioned

Crystal Allen

Gabby Crawford

Torri Lewis

Mimi Reid

Shandricka Sessom

The University of Mississippi Athletics