‘Coach Yo’, Rebels suffer first loss

After a 16-day hiatus and playing with only eight players, the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) Lady Rebels (6-1) women’s basketball team, featuring Bahamian Head Coach Yolett “Coach Yo” McPhee-McCuin and Bahamian guard Valerie Nesbitt, suffered their first loss of the season on Monday night, falling to the Louisiana State University (LSU) Tigers (4-4), 77-69, at home in overtime.

The Lady Rebels opened their 2020-2021 campaign with six straight wins, and this loss was their first of the season and also their first in Southeastern Conference (SEC) play. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I (DI) game was played at the 

Pavilion at Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi. The Tigers now have a 2-0 win/loss record in conference play.

McPhee-McCuin said that it is tough coaching in these COVID-19 times and felt that her team had enough players.

“One thing that I told the players, we can’t blame, complain or defend,” McPhee-McCuin said. “This is the COVID year, this is how it works. You’ll be on a roll and then you’ll be out for two weeks. I felt like we were just fatigued. Obviously, we didn’t have everybody, but I thought we had enough. There were opportunities in the game where we should have just won, but we didn’t have enough legs. It’s tough coaching in this COVID season, it’s just difficult. Honestly, there were a lot of good things that I saw that we can build on for the future. We get to play LSU again, who is a veteran team, and I think we’ll have a better wind about our sails the next time we see them.”

There has been a combination of positive tests, contact tracing and quarantining of individuals within the Lady Rebels program since their December 21 canceled game against Jacksonville State University. As a result, their December 31 scheduled game against the University of South Carolina was postponed to a later date and this latest game against the Tigers was pushed back one day from this past Sunday to Monday.

Nesbitt went scoreless in this game as she missed all four of her shots in 10 minutes of play. She was able to dish out three assists and collected two rebounds.

The game was highly competitive as it was tied eight times and there were seven lead changes.

The game was tied four times in the first quarter before LSU managed to take a 19-16 lead at the end of one. McPhee-McCuin’s ladies went on a 14-4 scoring to open the second quarter. Nesbitt got one of her assists on a Snudda Collins made shot from deep with 1:21 remaining in the second quarter. Collins was named SEC Freshman of the Week on Tuesday. Ole Miss went into the half up 30-27.

The Rebels took their largest lead of the game, 13 points, when Mimi Reid made a layup with 2:12 remaining in the third quarter. By the end of the third, the Tigers brought that lead down to just eight as the Rebels held a 52-44 cushion at the start of the fourth quarter.

Playing with only eight players seemed to catch up with the Rebels as the Tigers appeared to have more gas left in the tank in the fourth quarter. The Lady Rebels led 62-56 with 3:03 remaining, but that was not enough to stave off a late Tigers rally. The Tigers took their first lead of the second half when Faustine Aifuwa connected on a jumper with 1:11 remaining in the fourth to put her team up 64-62. On the next possession, the Rebels’ Shakira Austin made a jumper to tie the game at 64. That came with 55 seconds remaining in the game. Austin led the Rebels with 20 points.

The score remained the same as both teams could not come up with a bucket to break the deadlock in regulation.

In the overtime period, the visitors took advantage of the Rebels, outscoring them 13-5 to remain perfect in SEC play.

Defensively, the Rebels forced 19 Tigers turnovers and finished with 19 points from those turnovers as they played a solid defensive game.

Next up for the Rebels is another home game tomorrow night. They will look to get back on track as they go up against the Auburn University Tigers (5-5, 0-2 SEC). Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. McPhee-McCuin said she does not know how much players she will have available for tomorrow night’s game, but as far as she is concerned, she will prepare as if there are only eight players active again.

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