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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
6-5
Tulane
6-3
Ole Miss Drops Heartbreaker to Tulane
12/16/2015 | Women's Basketball
Boxscore | Photo Gallery
OXFORD, Miss. - The Ole Miss women's basketball team dropped a heartbreaking 61-59 contest to Tulane on Wednesday. Shandricka Sessom (Byhalia, Miss.) led the way with 22 points and 11 rebounds for her first career double-double.
Tulane cut Ole Miss' once 10-point lead to just one possession at the 9:27 mark of the fourth quarter and seemed to be taking the momentum but back-to-back charges from Torri Lewis (Olive Branch, Miss.) kept the ball with the Rebels. Despite the momentum, Tulane took a 46-45 lead - their first since the first quarter with 6:09 left in the final quarter.
The final five minutes of the game were intense with the teams trading buckets up until the final minutes of play. With Tulane leading, 60-57 with 19 seconds remaining Jonell Williams (Palatka, Fla.) converted a layup to make it a one-point game but Tulane's Kolby Morgan sealed the win from the line.
A triple from Torri Lewis (Olive Branch, Miss.), who drained 10 treys in Ole Miss' last outing, started the second half for the Rebels but the teams traded buckets for the majority of the third quarter. A'Queen Hayes (Horn Lake, Miss.) was all over the place on the defensive end helping the Rebels to force the Green Wave into 25 turnovers which led to 19 Ole Miss points on the evening.
The first quarter was tightly contested with neither team taking more than two possession advantage through the opening 10 minutes. Ole Miss leading scorer, Sessom got hot midway though and led the team with seven early points. Ole Miss was helped by a triple from A'Queen Hayes (Horn Lake, Miss.) - her first of the season - as Williams provided a spark off the bench late in the first quarter with four points. Ole Miss took a 19-15 lead after 10 minutes of play.
Ole Miss started the second quarter strong and used five unanswered points, including a trey from Alissa Alston (New Haven, Conn.) to take a 24-15 lead with less than a minute off the quarter clock. The teams traded possessions, but the home team dug in on the defensive end and pulled out the full court press at midcourt forcing the Green Wave to call a timeout, with the Rebels up 29-20. Tulane seized a little of the momentum but a bucket from Sessom and a charge from Lewis kept the ball with the Rebels and Ole Miss took a 32-29 lead into the halftime break.
From The Head Coach
On tonight's game...
"I told them before the game, the free throw line would be the equalizer. We let Tulane shoot from the line 33 times. It was 100 percent the equalizer of the game. We got every shot we wanted to start the second half. We have people that need to grow up and make plays. We have people that just laid down and didn't make plays. We had a basketball team that battled tonight."
On moving forward...
"We'll go to practice tomorrow and get ready to play. These are games that we have to win. I don't care how young we are. We beat ourselves tonight, and we beat ourselves at Southern Miss. That is on me. I have to figure out what the problem is and we will get back to work and continue to battle hard."
Rebel Sidelines
-This is the fifth overall meeting between the teams. Tulane takes a 3-2 series lead with the win and the teams have now split the last two meetings
-Shandricka Sessom extended her double-figure scoring streak to 12 straight games with 22 points in tonight's contest. Sessom is leading the Rebels with 18.1 ppg and has led Ole Miss in scoring on five occasions.
-Tulane is the second of three consecutive opponents from Louisiana for the Rebels. Ole Miss defeated New Orleans on Monday and will close the three game stretch against McNeese State on Saturday. All of Ole Miss' opponents both men and women at the Tad Pad this week are from Louisiana as the men's team took on Louisiana Tech in their lone home game this week on Tuesday.
-Freshman Torri Lewis took a season-high three charges in the contest. It's the most a player has taken in a single game in the Insell era.
-Each of Ole Miss' players that saw action scored points. It's the second time that has happed this season as it also happened at Stony Brook.
Up Next
The Rebels are back in action Saturday when they host the McNeese State Cowgirls at Tad Smith Coliseum Tipoff is set for 12 pm and will be broadcast on SECN+ with Will Kollmeyer and Armintie Herrington on the call.
Next Five Games
12/19/15- vs. McNeese State 12 p.m.
12/29/15- vs. Alabama A&M 6 p.m.
1/3/16- vs. Vanderbilt 2 p.m.
1/7/16 - at LSU 7:30 p.m.
1/10/16 - vs. Florida* 1 p.m.
*Pavilion Grand opening weekend
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.
