Ole Miss Stays Perfect At Home With Big Win Over MVSU

OXFORD, Miss. (OLE MISS/WCBI) – The Ole Miss women’s basketball team closed out the non-conference slate with a 67-30 win over Mississippi Valley State on Wednesday. Shelby Gibson (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) led the Rebel offense with 16 points off the bench, while Ole Miss picked up its 10th straight win at The Pavilion and fifth consecutive win. Madinah Muhammad (Chicago, Ill.) was back in the starting lineup and recorded her seventh game in double figures with 10 points, while Taylor Manuel (St. Louis, Mo.) led the way with eight rebounds – a new season-high.

After holding Mississippi Valley without a field goal in the third quarter, Ole Miss (11-2) pulled away early in the final frame with the Devillettes scoring just four points in the fourth quarter for a combined eight points in the second half. The Rebel bench was a huge help with 35 points – more than the Mississippi Valley State team combined.

Ole Miss used back-to-back steals and buckets in transition from Erika Sisk (Oxford, Miss.) to open the second half and pulled ahead by 23 points – the largest lead of the game to this point – with less than a minute off the third quarter game clock. The Rebels shot 47.1 percent in the third quarter on 8-of-17 shooting and held the visitors to just four points in the quarter – all from the free throw line.

Chrisahe Rowe (Riverside, Calif.) coming off her first 20-point outing in a Rebel uniform against Austin Peay, opened the second quarter by crossing over the a Lady Devillette for her first points of the evening. The second quarter didn’t feature much offensive action as neither team could get into a rhythm, but Ole Miss went down low to its freshman post player Gibson who scored eight straight points for the Rebels late in the quarter to push the Ole Miss lead to 34-16 with 2:13 left in the first half.

Ole Miss took a 39-22 lead at the break and was led by 13 points from Gibson, who scored eight of those points in the second quarter.

Ole Miss jumped out to an early 7-1 lead behind four early points from Manuel, while holding the Devilletes without a field goal for the first five minutes of the contest. Muhammad who was back in the starting lineup for the first time in the last two games, got heated up early with a triple on her first shot en route to eight first-quarter points. After the media timeout, Ole Miss used an 8-0 run over a span of 2:34 to push their lead to 22-10 at the end of the quarter.

The home team held Mississippi Valley to just 16 percent shooting (3-of-19) from the floor in the first quarter marking the second consecutive game Ole Miss has held an opponent to under 20 percent in the first stanza.

From The Head Coach
On the win…
“We’ve got 11 wins. It’s hard to get 11 wins in non-conference play. I’ve coached Elite Eight teams that didn’t get 11 wins in non-conference. It’s a hard thing to do and we were able to do that. We’re 11-2 with one of the best starts we’ve had in a long time in this program. I’m real proud of them. Now the fun starts. We started preparing for Arkansas, and that’s a little on me. Maybe we should’ve been a little bit more focused on Mississippi Valley. But my focus now is beating Arkansas. We’ll get better. We’ll shoot the ball better and we’ll be ready to go.

On his team’s defensive play…
“I got on them at halftime, told them we better start playing some D or it’s going to be a rough day for them tomorrow. They got better there. We forced 40 turnovers, but we didn’t score a lot off of turnovers. Our goal is always to get one point on top of our turnovers. It was an ugly game. Got real physical. But at the end of the day, we won.”

On the strong start to the season…
“I told the team, you put yourself in position where you’re in the NCAA talk as you go into conference play. Now you just have to go win games. You have to beat Arkansas. You have to go win games.”

On Shelby Gibson…
“She’s a good player and she’s going to continue to get better and better as she gets older. She knows how to play the game. Comes from a good high school program, great family, knows how to play the game. I’m really proud of her. It was a good game for her, and hopefully she comes back and has another good one.”

Rebel Sidelines
– Ole Miss moves to 15-2 against Mississippi Valley State. The Devilettes are the only non-conference team Ole Miss has played in each year of the Insell era.

-Ole Miss has picked up its 11th win of the season, surpassing last years entire win total and posting 10 or more non-conference wins for the just the third time since 2008-09.

-The 11 non-conference wins are the most since 2008-09 when Ole Miss also posted 11 non-conference wins. Although in 2014-15 Ole Miss had 12 wins over non-conference foes with two of those coming in the postseason WNIT. Ole Miss has reached double-figure non-conference wins twice in the Insell era (2014-15, 2016-17).

-Shelby Gibson posted her fourth straight game in double figures with 16 points

-Erika Sisk posted seven steals a season-high and one shy of her career-best

-Taylor Manuel’s eight rebounds are a season-best

-Mississippi Valley only scored 30 points marking the eighth opponent Ole Miss has held to less than 50 points. Ole Miss is a perfect 8-0 when holding opponents to under 50 points.

Up Next
Ole Miss opens the 2017 SEC slate on Sunday (Jan. 1) when they take on Arkansas in the SEC opener for both teams. Tipoff is set for 4 pm from the Pavilion at Ole Miss with a national broadcast on the SEC Network with Fran Harris and Jenn Hildreth on the call.

Next Five Games
Jan. 1 – vs. Arkansas                                           4 PM
Jan. 5 – at Alabama                                             7 PM
Jan. 8 – at Auburn                                                3 PM
Jan. 12- vs. Tennessee                                         6 PM
Jan. 16- at Mississippi State                                 6 PM