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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Saturday, November 30
Oxford, Miss.
2 PM
Ole Miss
vs
Alabama State
Women’s Basketball Back in Action at SJB Pavilion Against Alabama State
11/29/2024 | Women's Basketball
OXFORD, Miss. – Ole Miss women's basketball returns home to welcome Alabama State to the SJB Pavilion on Saturday afternoon. The Rebels will look to bounce back into the win column when they take on the Hornets at 2:00 p.m. CT, airing on SEC Network+.
TEAM FACTS
No. 18/18 Ole Miss Rebels (4-2, 0-0 SEC)
Head Coach: Yolett McPhee-McCuin • 7th Season at Ole Miss (107-86) • 12th Season in Career (201-149)
Alabama State Hornets (2-4, 0-0 SWAC)
Head Coach: Freda Freeman-Jackson • 27th Season at Alabama State (369-401) • 27th Season in Career (369-401)
ON THE AIR
Television: SEC Network+
Play-by-Play: Jake Hromada
Color: Lindsay King
Reporter: Ashton Southern
OLE MISS RADIO
Radio: Ole Miss Radio Network
Play-by-Play: Graham Doty
OLE MISS VS. ALABAMA STATE
This matchup marks the second time that Ole Miss and Alabama State have faced each other. The only matchup prior occured on Dec. 28, 2019 and resulted in a 93-66 win for the Rebels in Oxford.
In that lone game, six Rebels reached double-digit points with Deja Cage leading the charge with 20. Mimi Reid had a double-double in the game, scoring 16 points and dishing out 10 assists. Reid's performance was the last time a Rebel earned a double-double with points and assists.
SCOUTING THE LADY HORNETS
Alabama State is led by 27th-year head coach Freda Freeman-Jackson. Freeman-Jackson owns a 369-401 career record for the Lady Hornets and is 2-4 to start the 2024-25 campaign. ASU went 3-26 last season and returned nine players for 2024-25.
Alabama State was picked to finish 10th in the SWAC Preseason Poll, in front of Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Mississippi Valley State.
Cordasia Harris leads the Lady Hornets offensively and defensively, leading the team in points (10.3), rebounds (9.2) and blocks per game (1.3). She ranks top-two in the SWAC in blocks and rebounds, and secured a double-double twice so far this season. She scored 20-or-more points in both of her double-doubles. Harris is also averaging above .500 in field goal percentage, tops for her team.
REBELS AGAINST THE SWAC
Ole Miss has historically dominated members of the SWAC, as it possesses a 90-7 record against members of the conference. Ole Miss faced a trio of SWAC opponents last season, UAPB, Alcorn State and Mississippi Valley State, defeating all three.
The Rebels are slated to face all three again this season, as well as Alabama State and the conference's fourth-ranked team in Jackson State.
Ole Miss has already faced and defeated UAPB and Jackson State in the 2024-25 campaign.
LAST TIME OUT
Despite a strong second half showing, No. 18/18 Ole Miss dropped its matchup against No. 1/2 UConn, 73-60, in the title round of the Continental Tire Baha Mar Championship.
The Rebels found themselves in a 19-point hole at halftime, but ignited in the third quarter. Ole Miss outscored UConn 42-36 in the second half, fueled by 28 points in the third.
KK Deans and Kennedy Todd-Williams led the Rebels with 17 and 13 points, respectively. Deans scored 12 of her points in the third quarter alone, the most by a Rebel in a single quarter this season.
Madison Scott had a personal season-high in rebounds with seven, while reaching double-figure scoring for the third time this season. Starr Jacobs scored 11 points for the Rebels and contributed six rebounds of her own, five of which were on the offensive side.
ALL-TOURNAMENT REBS
KK Deans and Kennedy Todd-Williams were two of five student-athletes selected to the 2024 Continental Tire Baha Mar Championship All-Tournament team.
Combining for a team-high 32 points over the two games, Deans had a pair of standout performances in her first games back in the Bahamas since her season-ending injury last season in the Battle4Atlantis.
Against UConn, the graduate student boasted 17 points, including 12 in the third quarter to propell the Rebels within five points of the lead after being down 19 at the half. In the matchup versus Boston College, Deans tallied 15 points and was a perfect 6-6 from the charity line.
Todd-Williams tallied 13 points against UConn and had the best shooting night of her Ole Miss career, going 4-4 from beyond the arc, tying a career high in three-pointers in the process. Versus Boston College, Todd-Williams led the field with a season-high 17 points and five assists.
CLASH OF THE TITANS
The title game of the Continental Tire Baha Mar Championship marked a matchup of two of the most successful college basketball programs over the past three years. Ole Miss has won no fewer than 23 games in each of its last three seasons while UConn has recorded at least 30 wins annually in that same span. Ole Miss is one of just 22 NCAA Division I programs – and one of only 12 Power 4 teams – to notch at least 23 victories each year since 2021-22 as head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin has re-established the Rebels as a national power.
The Rebels' three-year win total of 72 ranks them ahead of storied programs like Maryland (71 wins), Tennessee (70), Michigan (68), USC (62) and Mississippi State (60). Ole Miss is averaging 24 wins over the past three seasons, good for 29th nationally among all NCAA DI programs and 14th among Power 4 teams.
The last time Ole Miss had a stretch of at least 23 wins in three consecutive seasons was 1986-89 under legendary Rebel head coach Van Chancellor.
COMPETING VERSUS THE NATION'S BEST
Despite falling short in its comeback, Ole Miss gave UConn a run for its money, becoming the first team this season to reach the 60-point mark against the Huskies.
The Rebels' signature defense held the Huskies to its worst three-point shooting night of the season. UConn went 3-14 from deep, a single game low in both three-pointers made and three-point percentage (.241).
Additionally, Ole Miss forced UConn into its first negative assist-to-turnover ratio of the season and its first in 15 games dating back to the 2023-24 season after committing 18 turnovers to only 15 assists.
FRESHMAN PHENOM
True freshman guard Sira Thienou has wasted little time making her mark as an Ole Miss Rebel. The Bamako, Mali, native was tabbed SEC Co-Freshman of the Week on Tuesday, Nov. 26, the first such honor of her young career and the first award of its type for an Ole Miss player since Madison Scott earned the same accolade six times as a true freshman during the 2020-21 season.
Thienou scored in double figures in three straight outings for the Rebels in November, including consecutive 16-point outbursts against Jackson State (Nov. 18) and Boston College (Nov. 25). The last true freshman to record double-digit scoring efforts in three straight games was Scott herself who did it twice during her first season in Oxford.
Additionally, the last time an Ole Miss freshman had a 16-plus point performance was when Scott earned 17 against No. 18 Arkansas, on Feb. 19, 2021.
DOUBLE-DOUBLE TROUBLE
In its matchup against Boston College, Starr Jacobs headed the charge with her first double-double in a Rebel jersey, scoring 12 points and adding 11 rebounds. The graduate student's double-double served as the 27th of her overall collegiate career and the 18th as a Division I player. Her double-double is also the first by any Rebel this season.
POWERING OVER THE POWER FOUR
The Rebels' 92 points against Boston College on Nov. 25 marked the first time Ole Miss scored at least 90 points against a Power Four opponent since outscoring LSU, 102-101, in triple overtime back on February 7, 2010. The last time the Rebels scored at least 90 points in regulation against a Power Four team was March 25, 2007, in a 90-82 win over Oklahoma.
Its convincing win also marked four-straight years beating a Power Four team by 30 or more points. In its last six victories over Power Four opponents, Ole Miss has triumphed by double digits each time for an average margin of victory of 27.33 points, including a 44-point win over Arkansas, a 37-point win over Boston College and a 30-point win over Kentucky.
STOLE THE SHOW
In typical Coach Yo fashion, Ole Miss toyed with Jackson State on Kids Day, forcing 29 turnovers and stealing the ball 20 times. It marks the most steals in a single game since securing 24 against Mississippi Valley State on Dec. 28, 2016.
Seven players had multiple steals while four starters in Starr Jacobs, Sira Thienou, KK Deans and Kennedy Todd-Williams recorded three.
TIME FOR TURNOVERS
Ole Miss' defense remains its strung suit, forcing its first six opponents of the year to make 18+ turnovers, including 29 against Jackson State.
The Rebels turned defense into offense all night versus the Lady Tigers, scoring a season-high 33 points off of JSU's turnovers.
On the other side of the court against Delaware State, Ole Miss played its cleanest game of the season, giving up only six turnovers to hold a -17 turnover margin after forcing the Hornets to lose the ball 23 times.
RECORD BREAKING REBS
Ole Miss showed up and showed out in its first win of the 2024-25 season, allowing the fewest points in program history as it kept Arkansas-Pine Bluff to just 24 points. Yolett McPhee-McCuin's teams now hold three of the top five spots with the fewest points allowed in Ole Miss history, including spots one and two.
DEFENSE GETS DUBS
Ole Miss' first win of the season was a convincing one. By defeating UAPB by 61 points, it ties the third-widest win margin in program history. It's only the fifth instance of an Ole Miss team eaching the +60 mark, and is the largest margin in the McPhee-McCuin era.
Ole Miss rejected 12 shots as a team, which is a tie for the third-most in a game in program history, the last time of which came last season against Florida. Christeen Iwuala led the Rebels in that category, blocking a career-high four shots.
UAPB failed to get a single player in double-digits, the first time an Ole Miss team has done that since the 2022-23 season against Alabama A&M.
DICTATE AND DISRUPT
The motto of "We Defend" remains the same during the 2024-25 season, as Ole Miss once again reinforced the message against USC.
Holding the Trojans to just one three-pointer off of 11 attempts (.091), Ole Miss forced USC to tally its' lowest three-point percentage since the 2021-22 season when Tameiya Sadler and Colorado held the Trojans to .083 from the arc.
Additionally, Ole Miss forced USC to make 26 turnovers, tallying the most the Trojans have committed since 2022.
HOME SWEET HOME
Rebel nation has turned the SJB Pavilion into an intimidating environment for visiting teams, especially in the non-conference slate.
Ole Miss has won 26 of its last 29 games at home against non-conference opponents, dating back to the 2020 season.
STAY CONNECTED WITH THE REBELS
New season and single-game tickets for the 2024-25 Ole Miss basketball season are on sale now. To purchase or learn more about buying season or single-game tickets for women's basketball, click here or contact the Ole Miss Athletics ticket office.
Follow the Rebels on X at @OleMissWBB, Facebook at Ole Miss WBB and on Instagram at Ole MissWBB. You can also follow head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin on X at @YolettMcCuin.
TEAM FACTS
No. 18/18 Ole Miss Rebels (4-2, 0-0 SEC)
Head Coach: Yolett McPhee-McCuin • 7th Season at Ole Miss (107-86) • 12th Season in Career (201-149)
Alabama State Hornets (2-4, 0-0 SWAC)
Head Coach: Freda Freeman-Jackson • 27th Season at Alabama State (369-401) • 27th Season in Career (369-401)
ON THE AIR
Television: SEC Network+
Play-by-Play: Jake Hromada
Color: Lindsay King
Reporter: Ashton Southern
OLE MISS RADIO
Radio: Ole Miss Radio Network
Play-by-Play: Graham Doty
OLE MISS VS. ALABAMA STATE
This matchup marks the second time that Ole Miss and Alabama State have faced each other. The only matchup prior occured on Dec. 28, 2019 and resulted in a 93-66 win for the Rebels in Oxford.
In that lone game, six Rebels reached double-digit points with Deja Cage leading the charge with 20. Mimi Reid had a double-double in the game, scoring 16 points and dishing out 10 assists. Reid's performance was the last time a Rebel earned a double-double with points and assists.
SCOUTING THE LADY HORNETS
Alabama State is led by 27th-year head coach Freda Freeman-Jackson. Freeman-Jackson owns a 369-401 career record for the Lady Hornets and is 2-4 to start the 2024-25 campaign. ASU went 3-26 last season and returned nine players for 2024-25.
Alabama State was picked to finish 10th in the SWAC Preseason Poll, in front of Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Mississippi Valley State.
Cordasia Harris leads the Lady Hornets offensively and defensively, leading the team in points (10.3), rebounds (9.2) and blocks per game (1.3). She ranks top-two in the SWAC in blocks and rebounds, and secured a double-double twice so far this season. She scored 20-or-more points in both of her double-doubles. Harris is also averaging above .500 in field goal percentage, tops for her team.
REBELS AGAINST THE SWAC
Ole Miss has historically dominated members of the SWAC, as it possesses a 90-7 record against members of the conference. Ole Miss faced a trio of SWAC opponents last season, UAPB, Alcorn State and Mississippi Valley State, defeating all three.
The Rebels are slated to face all three again this season, as well as Alabama State and the conference's fourth-ranked team in Jackson State.
Ole Miss has already faced and defeated UAPB and Jackson State in the 2024-25 campaign.
LAST TIME OUT
Despite a strong second half showing, No. 18/18 Ole Miss dropped its matchup against No. 1/2 UConn, 73-60, in the title round of the Continental Tire Baha Mar Championship.
The Rebels found themselves in a 19-point hole at halftime, but ignited in the third quarter. Ole Miss outscored UConn 42-36 in the second half, fueled by 28 points in the third.
KK Deans and Kennedy Todd-Williams led the Rebels with 17 and 13 points, respectively. Deans scored 12 of her points in the third quarter alone, the most by a Rebel in a single quarter this season.
Madison Scott had a personal season-high in rebounds with seven, while reaching double-figure scoring for the third time this season. Starr Jacobs scored 11 points for the Rebels and contributed six rebounds of her own, five of which were on the offensive side.
ALL-TOURNAMENT REBS
KK Deans and Kennedy Todd-Williams were two of five student-athletes selected to the 2024 Continental Tire Baha Mar Championship All-Tournament team.
Combining for a team-high 32 points over the two games, Deans had a pair of standout performances in her first games back in the Bahamas since her season-ending injury last season in the Battle4Atlantis.
Against UConn, the graduate student boasted 17 points, including 12 in the third quarter to propell the Rebels within five points of the lead after being down 19 at the half. In the matchup versus Boston College, Deans tallied 15 points and was a perfect 6-6 from the charity line.
Todd-Williams tallied 13 points against UConn and had the best shooting night of her Ole Miss career, going 4-4 from beyond the arc, tying a career high in three-pointers in the process. Versus Boston College, Todd-Williams led the field with a season-high 17 points and five assists.
CLASH OF THE TITANS
The title game of the Continental Tire Baha Mar Championship marked a matchup of two of the most successful college basketball programs over the past three years. Ole Miss has won no fewer than 23 games in each of its last three seasons while UConn has recorded at least 30 wins annually in that same span. Ole Miss is one of just 22 NCAA Division I programs – and one of only 12 Power 4 teams – to notch at least 23 victories each year since 2021-22 as head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin has re-established the Rebels as a national power.
The Rebels' three-year win total of 72 ranks them ahead of storied programs like Maryland (71 wins), Tennessee (70), Michigan (68), USC (62) and Mississippi State (60). Ole Miss is averaging 24 wins over the past three seasons, good for 29th nationally among all NCAA DI programs and 14th among Power 4 teams.
The last time Ole Miss had a stretch of at least 23 wins in three consecutive seasons was 1986-89 under legendary Rebel head coach Van Chancellor.
COMPETING VERSUS THE NATION'S BEST
Despite falling short in its comeback, Ole Miss gave UConn a run for its money, becoming the first team this season to reach the 60-point mark against the Huskies.
The Rebels' signature defense held the Huskies to its worst three-point shooting night of the season. UConn went 3-14 from deep, a single game low in both three-pointers made and three-point percentage (.241).
Additionally, Ole Miss forced UConn into its first negative assist-to-turnover ratio of the season and its first in 15 games dating back to the 2023-24 season after committing 18 turnovers to only 15 assists.
FRESHMAN PHENOM
True freshman guard Sira Thienou has wasted little time making her mark as an Ole Miss Rebel. The Bamako, Mali, native was tabbed SEC Co-Freshman of the Week on Tuesday, Nov. 26, the first such honor of her young career and the first award of its type for an Ole Miss player since Madison Scott earned the same accolade six times as a true freshman during the 2020-21 season.
Thienou scored in double figures in three straight outings for the Rebels in November, including consecutive 16-point outbursts against Jackson State (Nov. 18) and Boston College (Nov. 25). The last true freshman to record double-digit scoring efforts in three straight games was Scott herself who did it twice during her first season in Oxford.
Additionally, the last time an Ole Miss freshman had a 16-plus point performance was when Scott earned 17 against No. 18 Arkansas, on Feb. 19, 2021.
DOUBLE-DOUBLE TROUBLE
In its matchup against Boston College, Starr Jacobs headed the charge with her first double-double in a Rebel jersey, scoring 12 points and adding 11 rebounds. The graduate student's double-double served as the 27th of her overall collegiate career and the 18th as a Division I player. Her double-double is also the first by any Rebel this season.
POWERING OVER THE POWER FOUR
The Rebels' 92 points against Boston College on Nov. 25 marked the first time Ole Miss scored at least 90 points against a Power Four opponent since outscoring LSU, 102-101, in triple overtime back on February 7, 2010. The last time the Rebels scored at least 90 points in regulation against a Power Four team was March 25, 2007, in a 90-82 win over Oklahoma.
Its convincing win also marked four-straight years beating a Power Four team by 30 or more points. In its last six victories over Power Four opponents, Ole Miss has triumphed by double digits each time for an average margin of victory of 27.33 points, including a 44-point win over Arkansas, a 37-point win over Boston College and a 30-point win over Kentucky.
STOLE THE SHOW
In typical Coach Yo fashion, Ole Miss toyed with Jackson State on Kids Day, forcing 29 turnovers and stealing the ball 20 times. It marks the most steals in a single game since securing 24 against Mississippi Valley State on Dec. 28, 2016.
Seven players had multiple steals while four starters in Starr Jacobs, Sira Thienou, KK Deans and Kennedy Todd-Williams recorded three.
TIME FOR TURNOVERS
Ole Miss' defense remains its strung suit, forcing its first six opponents of the year to make 18+ turnovers, including 29 against Jackson State.
The Rebels turned defense into offense all night versus the Lady Tigers, scoring a season-high 33 points off of JSU's turnovers.
On the other side of the court against Delaware State, Ole Miss played its cleanest game of the season, giving up only six turnovers to hold a -17 turnover margin after forcing the Hornets to lose the ball 23 times.
RECORD BREAKING REBS
Ole Miss showed up and showed out in its first win of the 2024-25 season, allowing the fewest points in program history as it kept Arkansas-Pine Bluff to just 24 points. Yolett McPhee-McCuin's teams now hold three of the top five spots with the fewest points allowed in Ole Miss history, including spots one and two.
DEFENSE GETS DUBS
Ole Miss' first win of the season was a convincing one. By defeating UAPB by 61 points, it ties the third-widest win margin in program history. It's only the fifth instance of an Ole Miss team eaching the +60 mark, and is the largest margin in the McPhee-McCuin era.
Ole Miss rejected 12 shots as a team, which is a tie for the third-most in a game in program history, the last time of which came last season against Florida. Christeen Iwuala led the Rebels in that category, blocking a career-high four shots.
UAPB failed to get a single player in double-digits, the first time an Ole Miss team has done that since the 2022-23 season against Alabama A&M.
DICTATE AND DISRUPT
The motto of "We Defend" remains the same during the 2024-25 season, as Ole Miss once again reinforced the message against USC.
Holding the Trojans to just one three-pointer off of 11 attempts (.091), Ole Miss forced USC to tally its' lowest three-point percentage since the 2021-22 season when Tameiya Sadler and Colorado held the Trojans to .083 from the arc.
Additionally, Ole Miss forced USC to make 26 turnovers, tallying the most the Trojans have committed since 2022.
HOME SWEET HOME
Rebel nation has turned the SJB Pavilion into an intimidating environment for visiting teams, especially in the non-conference slate.
Ole Miss has won 26 of its last 29 games at home against non-conference opponents, dating back to the 2020 season.
STAY CONNECTED WITH THE REBELS
New season and single-game tickets for the 2024-25 Ole Miss basketball season are on sale now. To purchase or learn more about buying season or single-game tickets for women's basketball, click here or contact the Ole Miss Athletics ticket office.
Follow the Rebels on X at @OleMissWBB, Facebook at Ole Miss WBB and on Instagram at Ole MissWBB. You can also follow head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin on X at @YolettMcCuin.
Players Mentioned
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