Mississippi guard Gracie Frizzell (12) looks for room past Florida guard Jaterra Bonds (10) during an NCAA college basketball game in Oxford, Miss., Sunday, Feb. 2, 2014. (DM Photo/Ignacio Murillo)
Head coach Matt Insell and his Rebels have energized their fan base with an impressive run in the past month and a half.
Right before Christmas break, then 11th-ranked Baylor came to Oxford and put a whipping on the Rebels by a score of 98-69. That result turned many people into fans and made them wonder how far off this team is from competing in the Southeastern Conference.
In women’s college basketball, the parity is at a maximum. Unlike in men’s, where the parity gap is a lot closer. Baylor is currently ranked 3rd in the nation, so it was hard to tell where the Rebels stood in the season after that result.
The team ran through the rest of their nonconference schedule with wins over South Alabama and Alabama A&M, a thrilling 68-66 victory over Southern Miss and coming through in overtime against Southeastern Louisiana by a score of 79-71.
Going into SEC play, Ole Miss stood at 10-3 and opened at home against Arkansas. It was a chance for them to get off to a good start after going an abysmal 2-14 in the league last year.
Conference play began with a bang. The Rebels defeated the Razorbacks 71-57. It was their first SEC home opening win since the 2010-2011 season when they defeated Vanderbilt 72-69.
“I am just so proud of the team and how tough they played. They had so much toughness throughout the game,” Insell said postgame. “I told the team this morning that it is huge in SEC play that you take control of momentum at the last four minutes of the first half, and the first four minutes of the second half. You need to control the momentum in those two eras and we did that tonight.”
Next up was on the road to then 11th-ranked Kentucky. As did the men’s team days later, the Rebels hung in a game they had no business being in and dropped a close one on the road 64-58.
“We had a couple of missed execution situations there that we can fix, as a coaching staff and as a team, we talked about that at the end of the game,” Insell said. “But I couldn’t be more proud of the effort that our team put in.”
That game in Lexington displayed a toughness that Insell always preaches.
That effort in Lexington led to the Lady Rebels winning three straight SEC games over Florida on the road in a gutsy 64-57 win, their first SEC road win since the 2012-2013 season. A few days later, Ole Miss knocked off Alabama 77-63 behind 24 points from junior guard Gracie Frizzell, including a school-record eight 3-pointers.
Ole Miss then pulled the upset against No. 16 Georgia at home 55-52. Frizzell, senior Tia Faleru, sophomore Erika Sisk, and senior Danielle McCray were at the heart of the upset by all scoring in double figures.
It was the first signature win in the Insell era. More importantly, it was also the first time the Rebels knocked off a nationally ranked team since the 2010-2011 season and snapped a 24-game losing streak to ranked opponents.
Squeezed in between the three-game winning streak was when A’Queen Hayes was named SEC freshman of the week in which she averaged 12.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.5 steals in wins over Florida and Alabama.
The Rebels ran into a buzzsaw the next two games in which they were tasked to face two nationally ranked teams back-to-back.
They dropped the first one to No. 12 Texas A&M on the road by a score of 58-49 and dropped a heartbreak to archrival No. 18 Mississippi St. at home to the tune of 64-62.
It was a game where the Rebels needed one last stop to get the game into overtime, but Morgan William of the Bulldogs made a game-winning jumper to send heartbreak to Ole Miss.
“I just want to thank everyone that came. Our team is hurting right now. They battled,” Insell said. “There is something about this team. When it gets tough, they step up and start making the plays they need to make.
Insell has done wonders for this team this year and brought optimism to the women’s program. Time will tell this year how far this team has come, but the ship is sailing in the right direction.
