Oxford, MS – No. 17/17 Ole Miss shot 51 percent from the field and made 29 of 36 attempts from the free-throw line to take a 94-81 victory over No. 21/21 Tennessee on Tuesday night at SJB Pavilion.
The Lady Vols (16-8, 8-4 SEC) were led in scoring by redshirt senior guard Talaysia Cooper with 30 points. Freshman guard/forward Lauren Hurst contributed a career-high 16, while junior forward Alyssa Latham added 10.
The Rebels (21-6, 8-4 SEC) were paced by a 39-point, 10-rebound double-double from Cotie McMahon. Christeen Iwaula and Latasha Lattimore also were in double figures with 16 and 14 points, respectively, with Lattimore also pulling down 12 boards.
Ole Miss jumped on top 4-0 early before Janiah Barker responded with a three-pointer at the 8:50 mark to get Tennessee settled in. After the Rebels moved ahead, 7-3, a layup by Hurst and a turnaround jumper by Latham evened things at seven before a Lattimore layup sent the home team into the 4:56 media timeout with a 9-7 edge.
Ole Miss scored seven straight points out of the break to build a 16-7 lead with 2:48 to go, but a pair of free throws from Latham and a quarter-closing three by Nya Robertson ended the first frame with the Lady Vols trailing by six, 18-12.
The hosts built their lead to 10, 22-12, on an Iwuala inside bucket with 8:58 remaining, but layups by Hurst and Jaida Civil and a trey from Hurst trimmed the margin to five, 24-19, by the 6:34 mark. A Cooper score pulled UT to within five again, 26-21, with 5:46 left, but the Rebels extended the lead back to eight, 29-21, by the 4:55 media break.
UM twice upped its lead to 12, forcing a UT timeout with 2:04 to go in the half. A McMahon layup built her team’s lead to 14, 42-28, before Cooper scored five straight to whittle the deficit to nine with 46 ticks left. A Lattimore layup, though, sent Ole Miss into the locker room with a 44-33 cushion.
The Rebels kept the pressure on in the third quarter, building their lead to 21, 62-41, with 4:42 remaining before a Cooper score whittled UT’s deficit to 19, 62-43, heading into the 4:35 media timeout. The ut Lady Vols got a pair of buckets from Latham and two three-balls from Hurst the rest of the way, but Ole Miss built its lead to 26 and closed out the period with a 75-53 advantage.
Tennessee continued to battle in the final frame, getting another trey from Hurst, six points from Cooper, a Robertson three and a Barker free throw to outscore Ole Miss, 14-8, and cut the gap to 16, 83-67, by the 4:16 media timeout. A Barker layup pulled UT within 13, 85-72, with 2:47 to go, and a Cooper floater trimmed it to 12, 91-79, with 1:16 to go, but the Lady Vols could get no closer.
Next Up For UT Women’s Basketball
The Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team returns to Knoxville and will have a quick turnaround to prepare to host Texas A&M (10-11, 3-9 SEC) on Thursday night. The Lady Vols and Aggies will meet at Food City Center at 5:30pm CT (6:30pm ET).
The contest will be broadcast on SECN+ and also carried on Lady Vol Radio Network stations with audio streaming available on UTSports.com.
