The Lady Rebels fell 60-46 to Missouri on Sunday afternoon in the Pavilion.
The second quarter proved to be Ole Miss’ downfall; they scored a total of 3 points. It was the lowest single quarter this whole year in women’s college basketball.
That period set the tone for the Lady Rebels the rest of the game as they went on to only muster 46 points.
“We didn’t make enough shots to win the game. We got a lot of great looks,” Head Women’s Basketball Coach Matt Insell said. “I hurt for our players because they played really, really hard. We got beat by a really good team, but they played extremely hard.”
In Ole Miss’ last home win over then-No. 9 Kentucky, the Lady Rebels were able to make shots to put away Kentucky and seal the upset.
In Sunday’s loss to Missouri, Ole Miss went stone cold from the field. They shot 24 percent in the game. It was their lowest shooting percentage this year.
The Lady Rebels’ three best shooters— Shaquilla Joseph, A’Queen Hayes and Shaquilla Joseph— went a combined 14-of-48.
Shandrika Sessom finished with 20 points. Joseph and Hayes both scored 3 points each.
The deficiencies on the offensive end still provided Ole Miss with a lead into halftime by a score of 19-18 while only shooting 22 percent. A big part of the lead was the fact that the Lady Rebels turned Missouri over 17 times and 25 for the entire game.
“You force a team into 25 turnovers and you have eight, you should win a basketball game,” Insell said. “We held a Missouri basketball team to 60. You got to win that basketball game. You got to win it.”
Missouri got it going in the second half. Sierra Michelis and Jordan Frericks scored 15 and 17 points respectively in that half alone. Ole Miss consistently lost Michelis as she burned them from the three-point line.
It allowed Missouri to extend the lead out to 43-34 at the end of the third quarter, eventually allowing the Lady Tigers to pull away in the fourth quarter to seal the win.
Michelis finshed the day with 20 points and Jordan Frericks with 17 points.
Missouri started the first seven games last year 1-6 and ended up finishing at 7-9 in the league, tied with Ole Miss. After Sunday’s game, Insell used that to motivate his squad through their tough stretch.
“I’ve used Missouri’s start last year with our team,” Insell said, “Look you’re going to break through and you’re going to push through and you’re going to make something special happen with this basketball team.”
“You cannot let your record define who you are, and you can’t let this game define who you are right now, because you are a lot better than your record is.”
Ole Miss finished the last game of a brutal five-game stretch, each against ranked teams. They will not play a ranked team again until Texas A&M on Feb. 15.
The Lady Rebels sit at 10-11 and 2-6 in conference play and have time to make amends for a rough first-half slate.
Ole Miss plays next at Alabama on Thursday at 6 p.m.
