Ole Miss Women’s Basketball Upsets No. 9 Kentucky

OXFORD, Miss. (Ole Miss Athletics) – The Ole Miss women’s basketball team (10-9, 2-4 SEC) snapped its four-game losing streak in impressive fashion by knocking off No. 9/9 Kentucky for its first win at The Pavilion at Ole Miss and first win over a top 10 opponent since knocking off No. 8 Georgia in 2010 on Thursday night.

Junior Shequila Joseph (London, England) led the Ole Miss offense and tied her career-high with 21 points to lead a trio of Rebels in double figures. A’Queen Hayes (Horn Lake, Miss.) and Shandricka Sessom (Byhalia, Miss.) each added 14 points while Hayes added a team-best six rebounds.

Holding a 54-47 lead entering the fourth quarter, Ole Miss scored the first five points of the quarter which prompted Kentucky to call a timeout just a minute into the quarter. Holding a 10-point lead with 7:02 left in the fourth quarter, Kentucky went on an 8-0 run to cut the lead to five point and forced Insell to call a timeout. Hayes ended a nearly four minute drought with a bucket in the paint and Sessom completed a three-point play to keep the Rebels ahead for good as they earned their first win over a ranked opponent since defeating the same Wildcats last season.

Sessom kept the momentum with the home team nailing the first two Ole Miss buckets of the second half to push the lead to 10-points, 41-31 — the largest of the game for either team — with just a minute off the game clock. After a somewhat fast start to the third quarter, Ole Miss saw a bit of a lull in scoring midway though the quarter but locked in on defense and was able to keep the Wildcats off the board as well. A triple from Joseph ended Ole Miss’ 3:15 scoring drought and sparked the Rebels who reeled off several baskets to pull ahead 54-47 at the end of the third quarter.

The Rebels opened the game strong with presence on the defensive end and was on the board first with triples from Erika Sisk (Oxford, Miss.) and Sessom to set the tone on both ends early. Ole Miss jumped out to a 15-9 with 4 minutes left on the first quarter game clock behind excellent play on the defensive end. Ole Miss took a 23-18 lead at the end of the first quarter and was helped by three-pointers as the Rebels knocked down five triples in the first half with two from Shequila Joseph (London, England), her first game of multiple triples since nailing two in Ole Miss win over Vanderbilt in their SEC opener.

Kentucky cut into the Rebels lead early into the second quarter and the Rebels once six-point lead was cut to one point before buckets on back-to-back possessions from Joseph and Madinah Muhammad (Chicago, Ill.) and a highlighted by a huge charge from Muhammad gave the home team some cushion heading into the second quarter media timeout. Ole Miss took a 35-31 lead into halftime and led for 19:11 of the first half of play.

From The Head Coach
Opening statement…
“What a great win for our program, to get a win over a top ten team. It speaks volumes of where we are going with the process and what we are doing with this program. We got off to a rough start in conference, starting 1-and-4, but I told the team yesterday we have to get back to playing Ole Miss Basketball. We were taking blows like in a boxing match, and eventually you’re going to fall down. We had to start delivering blows with our defensive intensity. Yesterday in practice I challenged them to do that, and I think we had our best practice of the year.”

On the start in league play…
“We hit some adversity starting 1-and-4 and we had to find a way to get out of it. Are we out of it yet? No, by no means. But we’re in a twelve game season right now and we started that with State and lost. I told them if they have a .500 or a winning record in those 12 games we’ll have seven, eight, nine wins in the league. I felt good about the match up.”

Rebel Sidelines
-Ole Miss’ win over Kentucky was its’ second consecutive win over the Wildcats and it’s second win over the Wildcats as a ranked opponents. With the win the series moves to 21-17 in favor of the Wildcats.

-Tonight’s win over the No. 9/9 Wildcats was the first win for Ole Miss over a top-10 team since defeating No. 8 Georgia in 2010. The win is also the first at The Pavilion at Ole Miss for the Rebels.

-This is a matchup between teacher and student as Ole Miss’ head coach Matt Insell squared off with his former employer in Kentucky’s Matthew Mitchell. Insell and the Rebels won the last meeting between the teams.

-Shequila Joseph tied her career-high with 5 three-pointers; she has twice hit five three pointers in her career. She also tied her career-high with 21 points, her second 20 point outing this season.

-Shandricka Sessom was in double figures for the third straight game with14 points

-A’Queen Hayes was into double figures for the second time this season with 14 points and the first time in SEC action.

Up Next
The Rebels will take the weekend off before hitting the road again to take on No. 2 South Carolina. Fans can catch the game on SEC Network+ Fans can also hear Graham Doty and Armintie Herrington on the call on 105.1/105.5 in Oxford/Batesville and on OleMissSports.com