Ole Miss guard Tameiya Sadler plays defense during the Rebels' win over Vanderbilt in Nashville. / Ole Miss Athletics
Ole Miss Rebels women's basketball completed a season sweep of the Vanderbilt Commodores on Sunday afternoon, claiming a win on the road in Nashville by a final score of 76-61.
Ole Miss (15-6, 6-3 SEC) led at the end of every quarter on Sunday, and it used a strong amount of "team defense" to accomplish that goal. Scoring-wise for the Rebels, Starr Jacobs led the way with 24 points, and Madison Scott added 16. Jacobs also finished the game with a double-double as she registered 10 rebounds in the win.
The Rebels as a team shot 54.2 percent from the field, 16.7 percent from three and 71.4 percent from the free throw line compared to Vanderbilt's marks of 46.9 (FG), 22.2 (three) and 81.3 (FT). After the game, Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin gave insight into what helped her team gain this season sweep over the Commodores, one that began with an 87-59 win in Oxford on Jan. 9.
"Just being who we are," McPhee-McCuin said. "This is a great matchup for us. Starr loves playing against them. This is another monster game she's had, and we just didn't take them for granted. There's no opponent in the SEC that you can take for granted.
"We took it seriously. We knew that they would want to come out and play better after beating them by 28 points. We expect them to come back, but I just told our team don't assume that it should be a closer game. Let's just play our game and defend at a high level, and I thought we did that."
The Rebels were also aided by forcing 18 turnovers of Vanderbilt in the game, and Coach Yo has long believed that her team's defense leads to success on the offensive end. She expressed that again on Sunday and stated that if you don't play well on the defensive side of the ball, Vanderbilt can make you pay.
"Us playing team defense," McPhee-McCuin said. "They're so good from a schematic standpoint that if you try to play one-on-one against them, they're going to get open shots, and they don't miss them. For us, it was complete team defense.
"I don't remember them having a lot of open looks, and so that made them have to work really hard. By the time they got to the fourth quarter, I don't know how much they had their legs."
Ole Miss will now return home for a couple of games beginning on Thursday when it hosts Oklahoma followed by a home date against Kentucky on Feb. 10. Tip-off between the Rebels and Oklahoma is set for 6:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network+.