For the Lady Rebels, the Pavilion magic that was created less than 24 hours ago by the men’s team, never translated over in their Sunday match up with Florida.
It was total domination on the part of the Lady Gators (14-2; 1-1 SEC), as they would win handily by a score of 85-65. They led in almost every category and gave the Lady Rebels no chance.
“True credit to Florida. They came in here with a game plan and played extremely hard,” head coach Matt Insell said.
“They came at us right away, and that is what it seems to be the game plan against us right now is that they’ll “back” if you get after them,” he said, “I keep telling our players you got to be tougher and you got to push forward. Whenever people hit back at us, we back up. That’s not good in this league.”
It doesn’t help that Ole Miss (9-6; 1-2 SEC) shot 29 percent from the floor, and went 10-of-25 on free throws.
They did start off strong though, opening up with an 8-3 lead, but Florida answered with a 21-4 run to go up 24-12 in the first quarter and never looked back.
Florida ended the half by going up 53-30 and never saw their lead go below 20 points.
For most of the game, the Lady Rebels were lost in their transition defense, which allowed Florida to get easy baskets in the paint. It also attributed to Florida having a big size advantage inside.
“They found a weakness on us. We knew our weakness would be inside at times and we can be exploited there,” Insell said.
“Florida was just bigger than us,” he said. “They realized where our weakness was and just pounded it in there. A lot of that was in transition where we didn’t sprint back and you got to sprint back and make a play at the rim and we just didn’t do that.”
The most glaring stat was that The Lady Rebels were outscored 54-18 in the paint and were out rebounded 60-42. Ole Miss, without a legit post presence, did not have an answer.
They didn’t have an answer for Florida in the half court as well, the Lady Gators had 22 assists on 30 made shots as they went on to shoot 43 percent for the game.
Florida had five players in double figures. Tyshara Fleming and Carlie Needles had 12 and 11 points respectively.
The life in the SEC doesn’t get any easier after this game. The Lady Rebels have to face five ranked opponents in a row starting with Texas A&M on Thursday night, but spirits are still being kept up after this recent disappointment.
“If we get down, where do we go,” Insell said. “We get down and the next thing you know we got Texas A&M on Thursday. We gonna go down there and get beat by 40? No, we got to figure out how to win. We’ve got to figure it out and tonight I saw some fight in some kids and that’s good.”
In a positive light, freshman Allissa Alston set a career high in points with 17.
“Alissa Alston on the bright side played really, really well,” Insell said. “She’s growing I’m really excited about her future.”
Madinah Muhammad chipped in with 15 points.
Ole Miss takes on the Lady Aggies in College Station at 8 p.m. CT Thursday night on the SEC Network.
