Valencia McFarland drives the ball past Auburn’s Meagan Tucker during Sunday’s game. Photo: Thomas Graning, The Daily Mississippian.
It was the last Southeastern Conference home game of the season for the Rebels. It was also senior day for seniors Valencia McFarland, Diara Moore and Kenyotta Jenkins. And it was a thriller. The Ole Miss women’s basketball team picked up its second conference win of the season by defeating the Auburn Tigers 73-71 in overtime.
“Real proud of getting that win. It kind of sums up our season up right there. We’ve been in those games all year long,” Ole Miss head coach Matt Insell said. “We’re playing in the best league in the country night in and night out. You know, there’s eight, maybe nine, teams out of this league going to make the NCCA tournament, and we’re competing every night with them. We’re going on their home floor and competing with them, we’re doing it here at our place, and I’m just so proud of our girls for staying the course.”
With Tia Faleru out due to illness, Ole Miss (11-19, 2-14 SEC) was able to grind its way to its second SEC win of the year over Auburn (16-13, 7-9 SEC) with big plays from all of the seniors. Ole Miss point guard McFarland led the way by scoring 27 points and also gained senior leadership from shooting guard Moore and power forward Jenkins, who both chipped in 10 points apiece.
“It means a lot. We had a lot of adversity today with Tia being out today, and K.L. (Jenkins) and Diara came in and played great,” McFarland said. “This is one of the greatest wins we’ve had so far.”
In what became the biggest win of the season, also came one of the biggest shots of the season. After Auburn freshman combo guard Brandy Montgomery made a 3-pointer to cut the Rebel lead to three, McFarland responded by hitting a half-court shot to give the Rebels a six-point lead going into halftime.
“That was kind of funny. In shootaround, we shoot half-court shots, in shootaround every time, and Valencia is never close on making a half-court shot. But today, she rimmed in about three of them, just they were on line.” Insell said. “When she let it go, I was sitting behind it, and I said, man, that one looks good, and it went in. That was huge momentum.”
Auburn opened the second half on a 9-2 run to gain its first lead of the game at the 17:16 mark. With Ole Miss leading 67-65 with just over a minute left in regulation, Auburn freshman point guard Meagan Tucker scored a layup to force overtime.
In the extra period, Moore scored four straight points to give the Rebels the early lead. McFarland added two free throws and picked off the game-winning steal to secure the senior day win for the Rebels.
“We know we’re playing good basketball right now,” Moore said. “We’re in games, and they’re close games that we are in.”
As regular season play has concluded, the Rebels will hit the road to Duluth, Ga., to play in the 2014 SEC tournament.
“I felt like the last four or five games, we’ve played about as good as we’ve played all year,” Insell said. “And we’ve got to take that momentum into Duluth, and let’s see if we can win a couple.”
Ole Miss will take on the Arkansas Razorbacks Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m.
— Browning Stubbs
bbstubbs@go.olemiss.edu
