Valencia McFarland and Tia Faleru drive up court during an NCAA college basketball game against Jacksonville State in Oxford, Miss., Friday, Nov. 8, 2013. Mississippi won 83-62. (DM Photo/Alex Edwards)
FRIDAY: OLE MISS 83, JACKSONVILLE STATE 62 (STUBBS)
After looking very shaky in the first half, the Ole Miss women’s basketball team cruised in the second half to give head coach Matt Insell his first win as a collegiate coach over Jacksonville State, 83-62.
Ole Miss trailed JSU 35-24 in an ugly first half. The Rebels shot 8 of 41 from the floor (19.5 percent), 8 of 23 (34.8 percent) from the foul line and 0 of 11 (0 percent) from three in the foul line.
“Some people said they’d like to be a fly on the wall at halftime,” Insell said. “But I really didn’t get on them too much. We forgot our fundamentals. We forgot what we did in practice. We were playing scared and timid. I just told them to relax and play, and then, we were fine.”
“The first half we had jitters and not enough enthusiasm about what we were doing,” junior forward Tia Faleru said.
In the second half, the Rebels played very well, scoring 59 points. Ole Miss shot 61.5 percent as a team in the second half. However, Insell said the Rebels are still not there defensively yet.
The Rebels had three players in double figures, with Faleru leading the squad with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Senior point guard Valencia McFarland added 15 points and senior guard Diara Moore scored 11 points.
SUNDAY: CENTRAL ARKANSAS 66, OLE MISS 63 (ELEY)
A late run by the Lady Rebels fell just short on Sunday afternoon as they suffered their first loss of the season, falling 66-63 to Central Arkansas.
Ole Miss (1-1) came into Sunday’s contest 2-0 all-time against the Sugar Bears (2-0) and won the last meeting in 2006 by 41 points.
The Rebels took an early lead and played very aggressive basketball in the first half but never found a strong rhythm offensively. A 10-point halftime lead quickly disappeared in the second half, as the Sugar Bears took advantage of the Rebels in the post. They repeatedly fed senior center Courtney Duever and freshman guard Maggie Proffitt, a native of Columbus.
Duever led all scorers with 22 points and also added 10 rebounds to complete the double-double. Proffitt finished with 14 points and six rebounds of her own.
Ole Miss was led in scoring by freshman forward Shequila Joseph, who scored eight of her 14 points in the second half, including a pair of big 3-pointers that kept the Rebels in the game late.
“Shequila’s rebounding numbers are going to go up,” Insell said. “She got her hands on a lot of rebounds tonight that didn’t show up in the stat sheet.”
Ole Miss will next play in Hawaii at the Rainbow Wahine Classic. They face West Virginia Friday at 9:30 p.m.
— Browning Stubbs and Nick Eley
