Rebels Fall to No. 18 Mississippi State

Jan. 22, 2015

OXFORD, Miss. -- Playing its third straight ranked opponent, Ole Miss fell in heartbreaking fashion to No. 18 Mississippi State 64-62 on Thursday night at the Tad Smith Coliseum.

Senior forward Danielle McCray (West Palm Beach, Fla.) briefly tied the game at 62-62 on an off-balance runner in the lane with 14 seconds left, before Mississippi State freshman guard Morgan William hit a deep jumper from just inside the 3-point lane with four seconds left to lift the Bulldogs (20-2, 5-2 Southeastern Conference) to the win.

"What a great atmosphere for a college basketball game," head coach Matt Insell said. "Mississippi State has a really good team. I said that all week, and I knew it was going to be a tough game. We have a pretty good team ourselves, and we're getting better each and every day. I hurt for our players."

Freshman guard A'Queen Hayes (Horn Lake, Miss.) led the Rebels (14-6, 4-3 SEC) with 12 points, to go along with five rebounds and five assists. She was joined in double figures by junior guard Gracie Frizzell (Little Rock, Ark.) with 10 points.

Senior forward Tia Faleru (Ozark, Ala.), limited by foul trouble and then fouling out with 1:54 left, finished with eight points and 11 rebounds in just 22 minutes. In her place, sophomore Shequila Joseph (London, England) stepped up with nine points and six rebounds in 26 minutes, as did freshman Kelsey Briggs (Memphis, Tenn.), who added seven points and two rebounds in 17 minutes.

"You're playing without your All-SEC player," Insell said. "She plays 22 minutes, and you still have a chance to win it. Tia Faleru is a really good player and we really need her on the basketball court for us to be success. It was hurtful for us to not have her for a large part of that game. I was really proud of Shequila Joseph and Kelsey Briggs."

Ole Miss used an 11-0 run midway through the first half to take a 22-14 lead with 8:55 lead, holding Mississippi State scoreless for 4:03. The Bulldogs got to within two, 32-30, with 1:02 left, but the Rebels pushed the lead back to four, 34-30, going into halftime with a lay-up by Briggs in the closing seconds.

Mississippi State opened the second half on a 12-4 run, including an 8-1 run at one point, to take a 42-38 lead and would not trail the rest of the way, leading by as many as eight points.

Ole Miss remained close, drawing to within four, 55-51, with under eight minutes left when a block-charge foul went against Faleru and Ole Miss, picking up her fourth personal foul and wiping a possible 3-point play. Faleru later pulled the Rebels to within three, 60-57, with 2:19 left, before picking up her fifth foul with 1:54 left in the game.

"We went a large part of that second half where we didn't have any pop," Insell said. "All of a sudden, it clicks in, and they start having pop there. We had a chance to win and gave ourselves a chance to win. We made the plays to win it. We executed when we had to execute, but we could not get over the hump."

After two missed free throws by Mississippi State, Hayes went the other way, coast to coast, for a lay-up to make it 60-59 with 1:49 left. Joseph later made one of two free throw to tie the game at 60-60 with a minute left.

Mississippi State drew a foul and got to the free-throw line again, making both to take a 62-60 lead with 46.6 seconds left, before McCray tied the game and William made the game-winning shot.

"Danielle McCray made a great play there driving through and scoring at the end," Insell said. "We didn't back in transition defense. And then Morgan made an unbelievable shot. I knew she was going to take it as the time ran down. She had no choice and she had to let it go. And then she raised up and made it. A'Queen Hayes contested it and guarded it as well as you can guard it. That kid made a tough basketball shot."

Ole Miss will take the weekend off and return to action on Thursday, Jan. 29 when they travel to Baton Rouge to take on LSU. Game time is set of 8 p.m. CT and will be broadcast nationally on SEC Network.

"It's easy to get your head down and start pointing fingers, but we can't do that," Insell said. "We have to continue to stay together. We have a lot of basketball ahead of us. We have a team that's hurting. There was not a player in the locker room that was not crying. That's progress for our program. We have a team that expects to win."

For ticket information, go to OleMissTix.com or call the Ole Miss Ticket Office at 1-888-REB-TKTS (732-8587). Keep up to date with the Ole Miss women's basketball team throughout the season on social media. For all Ole Miss women's basketball news and information, go to OleMissSports.com, and follow the Rebels on Twitter at @OleMissWBB, Facebook at Ole Miss WBB and on Instagram at Ole Miss_WBB. Fans can also follow Ole Miss women's basketball head coach Matt Insell on Twitter at @minsell.

REBEL SIDELINES: With a team-leading 12 points, freshman A'Queen Hayes led Ole Miss in scoring for the first time in her career... Gracie Frizzell scored in double figures for the third time in four games... Senior forward Tia Faleru had her double-figure scoring streak of 10 straight games snapped, as she fouled out at the 1:54 mark with eight points and 11 rebounds in 22 minutes... With 11 rebounds, Faleru recorded her 10th double-figure rebound game this season... Ole Miss lost just its third game this season when leading at the half, moving to 11-3 when leading at the half... Ole Miss lost just its third game this season when winning the rebounding battle (43-31), moving to 6-3 when winning the rebounding battle... Ole Miss moves to 5-6 when scoring less than 70 points.

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Team Stats

A'Queen Hayes

Gracie Frizzell

Shequila Joseph

Tia Faleru

Players Mentioned

Kelsey Briggs

Tia Faleru

Gracie Frizzell

A'Queen Hayes

Shequila Joseph

Danielle McCray

The University of Mississippi Athletics