The Ole Miss women’s basketball team lost in an SEC nail biter to the Auburn Tigers Thursday night. The Rebels led for much of the game, but a furious rally by the Tigers ended with Auburn winning by a score of 65-60. The loss puts the Rebels at 10-14 on the season and 2-9 in the SEC, and marked the Rebels fifth straight loss.
Shaquila Jones battles with Erica Sanders and Jessica Jones of Auburn for the ball Thursday night. (Photo by: Ariel Cobbert)
“Good win for Auburn, they had a team that just kept playing,” head coach Matt Insell said. “We had control of that game going into the fourth quarter, we really controlled the game for three quarters, we did not make the plays in the fourth quarter to win the game. We got every look we wanted in the fourth quarter, we got stops where we needed to get stops at times, but their go-to player (forward Katie Frerking) won the game for them.”
The Rebels led 52-45 to start the fourth quarter, but struggled to score the ball in the last period, only scoring eight points to Auburn’s 20. The Rebels top scorer A’Queen Hayes fouled with less than two minutes to play, hurting the Rebels’ final attempts to tie the game. Hayes led the team with 17 points along with three rebounds and four assists, and junior point guard Erika Sisk scored five and also lead the team with seven assists.
“I’m really proud of Erika Sisk’s effort,” Insell said. “I’m really proud of A’Queen Hayes’ effort. Shequila Joseph, those kids are battling every possession that they can battle and playing as hard as they can play defensively, offensively.”
Insell said the Tigers were a tough defense to face due to the variation of defensive schemes they ran.
“It’s a hard team to play against, and we did a great job for the most part of it but just did not finish the deal,” Insell said.
The Rebels struggled shooting from deep, connecting on just eight of their 29 3-point attempts.
“When you get open looks in the SEC, you make shots,” Insell said. “We go on dry spells because we get open looks and we don’t put them down.”
Insell was frustrated that the Rebels couldn’t finish at the end of the game and secure the victory.
Shandricka Sessom gets double teamed by Jazmine Jones and Jessica Jones of Auburn Thursday night. (Photo by: Ariel Cobbert)
“We’re so close in every basketball game. The staff and I stay up all times of the night just trying to figure out little things that maybe can help us win that game, win the next game,” Insell said. “We’ll be up till 4 o’clock in the morning again trying to figure out what can we do because we’re this close.”
Despite the tough loss, Insell feels like the team is close to tapping its potential.
“We’ll improve from this, we’ll get better from this, and we’re just really close on breaking through, and that’s the frustrating thing,” Insell said.
