Casual fans and conventional wisdom will call it an upset, but it sure didn’t feel that way.
Southern Miss turned up its defense late in the third quarter, overcame a double-digit deficit and held off Ole Miss in the final seconds for a dramatic 61-59 victory in women’s college basketball action Saturday afternoon at Reed Green Coliseum.
The Golden Eagles remained undefeated at 7-0, while the 19th-ranked Rebels dropped to 6-3 overall. It’s the first ranked win for the program since 1999 in front of a crowd of 2,600 fans.
“I would like to say that it’s a statement win,” Southern Miss coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. “But it’s still so early and there’s a lot of things that can happen.
“I do think it gets us some attention as to who we are. I think it does say, ‘hey, you might want to pay attention to Southern Miss. But this journey is so long and there are so many highs and lows. And the last thing we want to do is have this as a high point.”
Senior Domonique Davis drove the lane for a layup with 15 seconds remaining, and junior Nyla Jean made 1 of 2 foul shots to provide the Eagles with enough margin to preserve the victory.
It was Davis who got USM started offensively after the Rebels took an early six-point lead. Davis was able to attack the basket with dribble penetration and finished with a game-high 25 points, including 8 of 8 from the line.
“We knew they were going to be bigger than us, longer than us, and that’s what they’re known for.” said Davis. “But we didn’t want to get away from what we’re good at. We’re known for attacking the paint and getting a lot of layups.
“So we knew we were going to have to be smart about it, and I thought we did really well at attacking the basket.”
Ole Miss opened up shooting lights-out from 3-point range, hitting three of its first four shots from behind the arc on the way to a 13-7 lead.
But junior Melyia Grayson got a putback basket and freshman Morgan Sieper swished the first f her four 3-point shots to trim the margin.
“I’ve said it all year, that if teams want to come out on me, we still have Dom Davis, we still have Lani Cornfield, we still have so many threats at so many positions.
“I was glad I was able to open up the lane a little bit, because I knew they were going to make their free throws, they were going to hit big shots in the paint.”
Ole Miss had a size advantage over the Eagles and that gave Southern Miss problems throughout the game.
“We spent the whole week coming into the game struggling to figure out how we were going to score,” said McNelis. “They switch so well 1 through 4 and they’re bigger than us at every position.
“We spent a lot of time looking for weaknesses, or things they might struggle with that might use to score. We felt like we could guard them, but I wasn’t sure if we could score.”
The Rebels used their size to rebuild their lead, opening up a 7-point advantage, and led 22-18 at the end of the first quarter.
However, Davis opened the second period with a long 3-ball with the shot clock about to expire, with an assist from Sieper, then converted a turnover into a pull-up jump shot from 14 feet to give USM its first lead of the game, 23-22.
The two teams traded the lead, and the Eagles used a 12-3 run to regain the lead and opened up a four-point lead, 32-28, with 4:03 left to play in the first half.
Nevertheless, Ole Miss closed the half with an 8-0 run to lead 36-32 at halftime. The Eagles trailed despite shooting 57.9 percent from the field, including 4 of 9 from 3-point range.
“We kept being aggressive,” said Davis. “We didn’t want to just settle for jumpers. We knew that’s not our identity.
“We didn’t want that to be where the game got away from us, so we continued to be aggressive in the paint, because we felt like they couldn’t take that away from us.”
The third quarter belong to Ole Miss, at least initially, as Southern Miss seemed to lose focus. The Rebels completed what was a 19-4 surge by getting easy baskets and took a 47-36 lead midway through the period.
“We had that one lapse there at the start of the third quarter where we started to lay down a little bit,” said McNelis. “I thought frustration set in and we were subbing, trying to get a spark going.”
Senior Rita Igbokwe had a pair of field goals with drives down the lane, and senior Madison Scott had 5 of her 7 points in the first four minutes of the period with a drive down the lane, a free throw and a 12-foot jumper to give the Rebels their big lead.
“At halftime, we talked about how we had to have a good third quarter, and that huddle after we were down 11, we made the commitment that we were going to win that game,” said Sieper, who finished with12 points on 4 of 7 shots from 3-point range.
“We were going to put everything on the line and we felt like we were going to do whatever it takes to win the game.”
But that’s when the Golden Eagles turned up the heat defensively and junior Lani Cornfield came alive, scoring 7 of her 9 points as part of a 20-5 surge that decided the game.
“It seemed like at the start of that third quarter, we were flat, we didn’t have a lot of energy,” said McNelis. “We didn’t have a lot of things going for us offensively.
“But then we got a bucket, and things started going. We got some rebounds, we got buckets coming up the floor and it was a lot of momentum changers.”
Senior Brikayla Gray started the onslaught innocently enough with a drive down the baseline for a layup, then Cornfield took a steal coast-to-coast for a fast break layup, then Cornfield made a free throw, as USM ended the quarter on an 8-2 run.
“Domonique Davis, for the entire time she was in the game, played with a real passion, a real fight to win,” said McNelis. “In the first half, I thought Sieper was right there with her.
“Lani Cornfield came in late in the third quarter, and her defense became a difference-maker. Melyia finally came alive on the glass. This was a real team effort and we got contributions from a lot of players at different times.”
Grayson got a layup off an inbounds pass to tie the game 52-52, then Davis put USM head for good with a 16-footer from the top of the key. Cornfield sank two free throws to give the Eagles a four-point lead, setting the stage for the final frantic minutes.
But the Rebels again took advantage of their superior size to get some offensive rebounds and finally Scott cashed one in on a putback to snap USM’s 10-0 run. Davis hit two foul shots with 2:15 to play to extend the lead again.
Back came Ole Miss. Senior Snudda Collins sank a 16-foot jump shot to trim the margin with 1:52 left, then both teams missed opportunities to score in the next minute of game action.
Collins finally got to the line, but missed the first and made the second, allowing USM to retain its 58-57 lead with 52 seconds remaining.
Scott blocked a shot, but the Eagles got the offensive rebound, and after a time out, the ball went to Davis. After having trouble getting penetration in the second half, Davis got in the paint and put up a scoop shot for a layup and a 60-57 lead.
“She makes those shots a lot in practice,” said McNelis. “The thing that makes Dom so different from any other player on our team is Dom grew up always playing with boys. And you’re able to make those shots when you’ve always played with guys who are bigger than you.”
Senior Marquesha Davis got a putback off a missed 3-ball with 7.6 seconds left to close the margin to a single point again.
After another time out, Jean came off the bench and was immediately fouled with 5.6 seconds left. She missed the first one, but made the second, for her only point of the game.
Ole Miss still had time to get a shot and McNelis essentially told her team that going to overtime wasn’t the worst thing that could happen.
“We did not want to give a 3-ball up,” said McNelis. “We felt like they were going to go inside to their big girl and that’s actually what they tried to do. But the discussion was whether we would go man or stay with our 55 defense, our matchup zone.
“And we wanted to make sure we guarded every 3-ball, but at the same time we thought they’d go to the big kid and we were able to block that off. We really played it to perfection.”
Indeed, Jean, who made the most of 14 minutes and 32 seconds of playing time got the biggest steal of the season so far, knocking the ball loose and denying the Rebels any kind of shot at all as time expired.
Marquesha Davis finished with 15 points and Collins added 14 points for Ole Miss, which returns to action December 12 at home against Mississippi Valley State.
“This week, coming in and preparing for the game, we weren’t scared,” said Sieper. “Nobody on this team thought, ‘well they’re an SEC team.’
“We don’t care about rankings, we don’t care what league you play in. Our team is going to give everything we have, and we don’t care what number is next to your team. We’re coming to win every single game.”
The Lady Eagles don’t play at home again until December 30, when they open Sun Belt Conference play against Marshall.
USM will travel to Memphis next Sunday, then will play in the Florida Gulf Coast Classic at Ft. Myers, Florida December 20-21.
“I thought the entire crowd got involved, our band got generated and on those last two possessions, you could hardly hear,” said McNelis. “It was so exciting. I am so thankful for all those people who came out.”
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