Missouri Eliminates Ole Miss From SEC Women’s Tournament

GREENVILLE, S.C. (Ole Miss Athletics) – Ole Miss women’s basketball concluded its 2019-20 season with a 64-53 loss to Missouri in the First Round of the SEC Tournament on Wednesday afternoon.

“I thought they gave everything they had,” said Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin. “I commend my young ladies for just continuing and fighting every single day.”

Missouri (9-21, 4-12 SEC) scored the first seven points of the game and never looked back, leading by as many as 25 points with 0:43 left in the third quarter. From there, Ole Miss responded with a 13-0 run that spanned five minutes. The comeback attempt proved to be too little too late, and the Rebels ultimately fell to the Tigers, 64-53.

Sophomore Mimi Reid helped mount the Ole Miss comeback, scoring 11 points in the second half. The Bronx, N.Y. native finished the game with a stat line of 15 points, seven assists, five rebounds, and four steals.

“We had to recollect and remind ourselves that we had come this far,” Reid said. “We just decided to snap back. The coaches just kept pushing us and kept coaching us, so I think we were able to improve really quickly.”

Sophomore Taylor Smith led the Rebel offense in the first half, scoring 11 of the first 13 points for Ole Miss. In total, 11 of her 13 points came in the first half.

Senior Torri Lewis (11 points, five rebounds) also had a solid individual performance as she concluded her five-year career at Ole Miss with a trio of three-point shots on Wednesday afternoon.

With the loss, Ole Miss ended its 2019-20 season at 7-23 overall. The Rebels will now look forward to the 2020-21 season, when it will welcome the No. 1 recruiting class in the SEC.

“I think we’ll look totally different,” McPhee-McCuin said. “We have four young ladies that are home that will be eligible to play in the fall. And then we have three so far coming in that are pretty good.”