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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Homestand Continues With Kennesaw State On Monday
11/12/2017 | Women's Basketball
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OXFORD, Miss. - After a strong season-opening win over Northwestern State on Friday, the Rebel women's basketball team is looking to start 2-0 when Kennesaw State comes to The Pavilion on Monday night. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. as the second part of another Rebel Hoops doubleheader after the men's game vs. Eastern Kentucky at 5:30 p.m.
LAST TIME OUT
Ole Miss opened the regular season with a swift 75-44 victory over Northwestern State on Friday, shooting a precise 51.0 percent from the field while holding the Lady Demons to a mere 25.5 percent clip. Three Rebels scored in double digits, led by a career night by junior Madinah Muhammad -- who set new career highs with 27 points and eight assists.
SEASON OPENING SUCCESS
Historically, the Rebels know how to take care of business in the opening stages of the season. In the 43-season history of Ole Miss women's basketball, the Rebels have gotten the season off to a 2-0 start. Helping in that total is a recent string of season opener success, as the Rebels have won each of their last 10 season openers -- all of which have also been at home. In the Insell era, the Rebels have started the year off 2-0 twice.
LOCKDOWN DEFENSE
Ole Miss got off to a great defensive start against Northwestern State in the season opener, stifling the Lady Demons to just 25.5 percent shooting from the field -- the lowest opponent output since the Rebels yielded a mere 15.2 percent clip vs. Mississippi Valley State last season. The 2016-17 season was a remarkable one defensively for the Rebels, as Ole Miss broke the school record for fewest points allowed in a game on two separate occasions (31, vs. Southeastern Louisiana, Nov. 11, 2016; 30, vs. Mississippi Valley State, Dec. 28, 2016), and notched three games in the top-10 list with another smothering effort against Austin Peay on Dec. 20, yielding just 38 points to the Governors.
DINO DROPPING DIMES
Junior Madinah Muhammad is not wasting any time this season, as evidenced by her two stellar showing to open the year in an exhibition win vs. Mississippi College and the season opening win vs. Northwestern State last week. Muhammad dropped 18 points in the exhibition before exploding for a career-high 27 points and eight assists in the victory over the Lady Demons. Muhammad was on fire from the field, shooting 9-of-13 overall, 4-of-7 from three and hitting 5-of-6 from the charity stripe as well.
EYES ON THE PRIZE
Junior Madinah Muhammad is well within reach of eclipsing the 1,000-point threshold for her Ole Miss career, currently sitting at 618 career points scored. After increasing her scoring output by 6.6 points per game to 13.0 in 2016-17, Muhammad's career game PPG average currently stands at 10.5 -- putting her on pace for 922 points by season's end. If she does surpass the milestone this season, she will be the second junior in as many years to do so (senior Shandricka Sessom did so in 2016-17), and the third in the last six seasons (Valencia McFarland, 2012-13).
VALUE OFF THE BENCH
Sophomore Kate Rodgers is no stranger to posting big games on the boards, with an eight-rebound game already to her credit in a win against Wisconsin during her freshman season. Rodgers isn't waiting to warm up this season, though, as she crashed the boards hard in just 11 minutes played against Northwestern State with seven boards and five points.
A PROMISE FOR THE FUTURE
In her first regular-season action of her collegiate career, highly-touted 6-foot-5 freshman Promise Taylor looked like a veteran with a key 13-point, four rebound and two block performance in Ole Miss' win vs. Northwestern State. Taylor looked similarly comfortable in a 12 point performance in the exhibition win vs. Mississippi College, recording six rebounds and six blocks in the effort. With a wingspan of around seven feet, Taylor is sure to be a dominant force on the block for the Rebels, as those six blocks in the exhibition are more than any Rebel had put up in the regular season since since Nov. 24, 2008 (Shawn Goff, six, vs. Alcorn State).
SIZE DOWN LOW
Taylor has help down low off the bench and at the four-position, giving the Rebels a fearsome size advantage down low this season. Junior and member of the Spanish national team Cecilia Muhate has been starting alongside Taylor in the forward spot, and last season's two-time SEC Freshman of the Week Shelby Gibson gives a ferocious scoring presence off the bench.
SESSOM LOOKING TO MAKE A MARK
Senior and Preseason Second-Team All-SEC member Shandricka Sessom is part of an elite company in Ole Miss women's basketball history as one of 28 to score 1,000 points in a career, but this season she will be looking to cement her place among the top scorers in Rebel history. Sessom currently sits 27th all-time with 1,037 career points scored, and at her current career scoring average of 11.2 PPG, she is on pace to finish her career with 1,361 points -- which would be 17th all-time.
ROUGH SLEDDING AHEAD
Ole Miss has put together a very tough schedule in 2017-18 with 13 NCAA Tournament teams on it, but it's become even stronger now with the first preseason top-25 polls that came out this past week. The Rebels will go toe-to-toe with seven schools currently ranked in the AP Top-25 (with four more receiving votes), and six in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Top-25 (with five more receiving votes).
SCOUTING THE OWLS
Ole Miss will square off with Kennesaw State for the first time in program history this Monday. The Owls are coming off a low-scoring loss at Clemson on Friday, falling just 41-28. The Owls shut down the Clemson offense, not allowing a single double-digit scorer and holding the Tigers to 25.9 percent from the field and a paltry 15.8 from beyond the arc. However, the Owls weren't able to respond, shooting 18.2 percent from the field and just 7.1 from three on 14 attempts. Leading the way was forward Alexis Poole, who was the game's only double-digit scorer with 11 point and 14 rebounds.
TOURNAMENT TEAMS ON THE DOCKET
Ole Miss plays 13 schools in 2017-18 that advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2016-17:
DePaul (potentially Nov. 18, in Chicago)
2nd Round, lost to runner-up Mississippi State
Troy (Nov. 21, at home)
1st Round, lost to runner-up Mississippi State
Temple (Nov. 25, in Philadelphia)
1st Round, lost to Oregon
Oregon (Dec. 17, in Eugene)
Elite Eight, lost to UConn
Texas Southern (Dec. 28, at home)
1st Round, lost to Baylor
South Carolina (Jan. 4, at home)
Defending NCAA Champions
Mississippi State (Jan. 11 away; Jan. 28 home)
Defending NCAA runners-up
Missouri (Jan. 18, at home)
2nd Round, lost to Florida State
Tennessee (Jan. 25, in Knoxville)
2nd Round, lost to Louisville
Texas A&M (Feb. 8, in College Station)
2nd Round, lost to UCLA
LSU (Feb. 15, in Baton Rouge)
1st Round, lost to Cal
Kentucky (Feb. 22, at home)
2nd Round, lost to Ohio State
Auburn (Feb. 25, in Auburn)
1st Round, lost to NC State
REBELS AGAINST 2017 TOURNAMENT TEAMS
The Rebels went 4-8 against 2016-17 NCAA Tournament teams, notching wins against:
No. 25 Oregon - 83-67 (Dec. 14, at home)
Elite Eight, lost to UConn
Auburn - 63-59 (Feb. 16, at home)
1st Round, lost to NC State
Tennessee - 67-62 (Jan. 12, at home)
2nd Round, lost to Louisville
Texas A&M - 62-49 (Feb. 26, at home)
2nd Round, lost to UCLA
Follow the Rebels on Twitter at @OleMissWBB, Facebook at Ole Miss WBB on Instagram at Ole MissWBB and on Snapchat with the handle @OleMissWBB. Fans can also follow Ole Miss women's basketball head coach Matt Insell on Twitter at @minsell.
