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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
1-1
Ul Lafayette
1-0
Ole Miss Comeback Falls Short against UL-Lafayette
11/15/2015 | Women's Basketball
OXFORD, Miss. - Torri Lewis (Olive Branch, Miss.) nailed six triples - all in the fourth quarter - to get the Rebels as close as five points late, but Ole Miss couldn't get that one final stop as Ole Miss dropped a 82-78 contest to UL-Lafayette on Sunday night.
Lewis, who led the Rebels with a career-high 20 points, was 6-of-7 from long range and scored all of her points in the fourth quarter. Junior Bretta Hart (Poplarville, Miss.) posted a career-high 19 rebounds and was one point short of her second career double-double.
Ole Miss struggled from the outset on the defensive end and the Ragin' Cajuns took advantage by jumping out to a 10-point lead at the end of the first quarter thanks to three timely three-pointers and six Ole Miss turnovers which resulted in eight points for UL-Lafayette and a 20-point halftime lead for the visitors.
With the visitors leading 71-49, Ole Miss used a 15-4 sparked by three triples from Lewis and one from Oxford native Erika Sisk (Oxford, Miss.) to get the lead to 11 points and from that point they would get as close as two points in the final minute of action before the Ragin' Cajuns sealed the win from the free throw line.
Madinah Muhammad (Chicago, Ill.) added 14 points for her first career game in double figures, while Shandricka Sessom (Byhalia, Miss.) added 12 points for her second game in double figures this season.
The Rebels won the battle of the boards, 47-42, and shot 45.8 percent from the three-point line, including going 10-of-16 in the third and fourth quarter after going 1-of-8 in the first two quarters of play.
From The Head Coach
On the game as a whole...
"I have to do a better job as the coach figuring out the rotations for the first half and starting the game. We started with zero energy to start the game, with people just standing around and not playing with any kind of energy or passion. I have to go back and figure that out because that's two games in a row that it's happened. We played a much better team tonight than Friday. I knew UL-Lafayette was a good team, and the team didn't pick up on that warning. They shot a blazing percentage in the first half, and their guards kicked our tails. We didn't play very hard on defense in the first half."
On Torri Lewis…
"Torri is a "we" player, and I told the team that. She doesn't sit on the bench and hope someone plays bad so she can get in. She sits on the bench and figures things out about the game, but she has a long way to go defensively. She works very hard every day, but that's why she didn't play in the first half. I told the staff we need to continue working with her each and every day to get her better defensively, and if she continues to get better every day she'll get in there. She is one of the purest shooters I've ever coached, and she's a game changer shooting the ball.
On losing to ULL...
"This is not a game that we should have lost. We were better than them; we just didn't play with energy in the first half. It's hard to come out of a hole, and it doesn't matter who you are you're not coming out of that hole."
On guards fouling out and others replacing them…
"I think (Shandricka Sessom) did really well. I also think Alissa (Alston) did a good job. Alissa is a freshman, she's going to make those freshman mistakes and you expect that. We don't expect that from A'Queen Hayes, she played 13 minutes and just kept fouling. It really hurts us when Erica (Sisk) isn't in there too, and she picked up some fouls on some iffy charge calls that I'll have to go look at and figure out. If she's in there at the end I think that's a different game."
Rebel Sidelines
-Tonight's game was the first televised women's basketball game of the 2015-16 season on the SEC Network and was the first non-conference game the Rebels have had televised in the Insell era.
-Tonight's game is the fourth meeting between the teams, but only the third on record as the first meeting took place during the 1973-74 season, which is before the Rebels had a varsity women's basketball team. Ole Miss moves to 3-1 against the Ragin' Cajuns.
-Bretta Hart's 19 rebounds are the most for Ole Miss since former Rebel Tia Faleru pulled down 19 boards against Southern last season.
-This was Ole Miss' first ever loss to UL-Lafayette.
-For the second straight game, Ole Miss had a 20-point scorer.
-Ole Miss' 11 triples are the most since the Rebels had 10 in a win over Alabama on Jan. 11, 2015.
Up Next
Ole Miss concludes its three-game homestand against Missouri State on Thursday. This will be the first meeting between the teams. Tipoff is set for 6 pm at Tad Smith Coliseum and can be seen on SEC Network+ on the WatchESPN app.
Keep Up With the Rebels
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 MissWBB. Fans can also follow Ole Miss women's basketball head coach Matt Insell on Twitter at @minsell.
