Rebels Hit Road for Southern Miss

			OLE MISS (2-1, 0-0 SEC) at SOUTHERN MISS (3-1, 0-0 Conference USA) Tuesday, Nov. 19 • 6 p.m. • Hattiesburg, Miss. Reed Green Coliseum (8,095)
Watch • Live Stats • Listen Ole Miss Game Notes (PDF) • Southern Miss Game Notes • SEC Game Notes

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Ole Miss women's basketball hits the road for the first time this season, traveling to Southern Miss to take on the Lady Eagles on Tuesday evening.

TEAM FACTS

Ole Miss Rebels (2-1, 0-0 SEC)
Head Coach: Yolett McPhee-McCuin • 2nd Season at Ole Miss (11-23) • 105-86 career record (7th Season)

Southern Miss Lady Eagles (3-1, 0-0 Conference USA)
Head Coach: Joyce Lee-McNelis • 16th Season at Southern Miss (251-225) • 480-381 career record (29th season)

ON THE AIR

Television/Online: C-USA TV

OLE MISS RADIO

Radio: 105.1 FM
Audio: TuneIn
Play-by-Play: Graham Doty

SERIES AT A GLANCE
At Oxford: Ole Miss leads 8-2
At Southern Miss: Ole Miss leads 8-2
At Neutral Sites: Tied 2-1
Longest UM Streak: 5 (1976-77)
Longest SM Streak: 1 (77, 80, 89, 96, 15)
Biggest UM Win: 31 (2/24/77 - at Starkville)
Biggest SM Win: 19 (12/12/15 - at Hattiesburg)
Most UM Points: 94 (2/14/76 - at Oxford)
Most SM Points: 85 (2/4/80 - at Hattiesburg)
Last 10 Meetings: Ole Miss leads 7-3

SERIES NOTES

Series History
Ole Miss leads, 18-5

Current Streak
Ole Miss, 1

First Meeting
Jan. 8, 1976
• W, 63-46, at Hattiesburg

Last Meeting
Dec. 12, 2017
• W, 68-59, in Oxford
• Record 8,229 in attendance for Kids Day
• Torri Lewis: 6 points, 2-of-5 3PT

SCOUTING SOUTHERN MISS

Record
3-1, 0-0 Conference USA

Last Game
W, 57-42, vs. ULM
• Top Scorers: Respect Leaphart (13 points), Amber Landing (12 points)
• Set school record for fewest points allowed in one half (9)
• First win at ULM since 1981

Notes
• Top scorer: Shonte Hailes (13.5 PPG)
• Rank in the NCAA top-50 in: steals (24th, 43), turnovers forced (42nd, 22.5), assists (47th, 56), three-point defense (48th, .226)
• Amber Landing: 16th NCAA in blocks (9)

TEAM NOTES

LAST TIME OUT (vs. New Orleans)
Ole Miss women's basketball received a career day out of freshman Jayla Alexander, but could not overcome a slow start in a 69-64 loss to New Orleans at The Pavilion on Nov. 15.

The Rebels (2-1) shot 44.2 percent from the floor and were 8-of-19 from three-point distance, but the Privateers (2-2) took advantage of 23 Ole Miss turnovers, converting them into 25 points while shooting 41 percent overall themselves.

"I just think right now we're not the tougher team, and when you're not tough, you turn the ball over," said Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin. "I wasn't confident coming into this game because I didn't feel like we had a lot of good practices. With a team that is young like this, we're going to have to take losses to learn from it. As a staff, we saw it coming, but this team is stubborn enough that they needed to get a loss. We needed this."

New Orleans came out swinging right from the jump, winning the first quarter at a 13-2 advantage while holding the Rebels to without a field goal. Alexander helped kickstart the Rebel comeback in the second quarter, scoring 10 of 15 Ole Miss points that frame by herself to cut the deficit to 23-17 at the break.

The third quarter saw an offensive explosion from the Rebels, who shot 64.3 percent and scored 22 points. However, the Privateers went shot-for-shot with them, scoring 27 points on 52.6 percent shooting. New Orleans had climbed to a 20-point lead with 4:55 left in the third quarter, but Ole Miss closed the frame on a 16-7 run. The Rebels took the fourth quarter, 25-19, but the Rebels could only get within four points with 26 seconds to play before the Prviateers had solidified victory.

"We have to take our time and we have to be locked in," McPhee-McCuin said. "We have to be ready to step up and do the things you need to do to get a win. It's college basketball. That team is a team full of seniors. They're not afraid. They've played in these games. They've played two power-5 teams. They got their butts kicked pretty badly. They saw an opportunity with a young group like us and they took advantage of it. Congrats to them."

The bright spot of the day for Ole Miss came in the form of the freshman and Mississippi native Jayla Alexander, who came off the bench to score a career-high 21 points with a 5-of-8 clip from beyond the arc. Alexander is the third different Rebel to lead in scoring through three games played after Taylor Smith poured in 18 against Mississippi Valley State and Deja Cage scored 21 points against ULM.

Cage was in double figures for the third straight game as well, scoring 12 points while chipping in four rebounds and three assists. Junior Valerie Nesbitt recorded her first double-digit game as a Rebel, scoring 10 points with four steals. Freshman Sarah Dumitrescu was the top rebounder for Ole Miss, snagging a career-high 11 boards while adding four points.

"In order for us to have success, we have to go through situations like this and as a coach, I'm going to figure out how to get better for my team, and I expect them to do the same thing," McPhee-McCuin said.

SUCCESS AGAINST CONFERENCE USA
Ole Miss has a dominant all-time record against current Conference USA schools, holding a 60-32 all-time record. Ole Miss holds an 18-5 record against Southern Miss, the most meetings for the Rebels against a Conference USA school. Of the 12 current C-USA schools that Ole Miss has played, the Rebels only hold a losing record against Louisiana Tech (2-7), Tulane (2-3) and Western Kentucky (4-5).

ALL HANDS ON DECK
Of the 10 Rebels that have seen action in 2019-20, nine have averaged at least 15 minutes of action through three games played, with eight averaging at least 20 minutes.

VARIETY IN THE STARTING LINEUP
Ole Miss has used three different starting lineups in each of its first three games in the 2019-20 season, with sophomore Taylor Smith being the only Rebel to have started all three thus far. In Coach Yo's first season with the Rebels, Ole Miss used 17 different starting lineups through 31 total games played.

OPTIONS IN THE SCORING COLUMN
Ole Miss has had a different leading scorer through each of its first three games this season after having just four unique top scorers throughout the entire 2018-19 season. Sophomore Taylor Smith opened the season by doubling her career high with 18 points vs. Mississippi Valley State before Deja Cage took over with a career-high 21 points vs. ULM. Freshman Jayla Alexander picked up the mantle against New Orleans, more than doubling her own career high with 21 points against the Privateers.

BENCH COMING THROUGH
The Rebel bench has been active in the scoring department through three games played, out-scoring opponents by margins of 28-12 vs. MVSI, 28-0 against ULM and 36-4 against New Orleans for a season total of 92-16.

DEFENSE! DEFENSE!
Ole Miss currently ranks in the upper half of the SEC in scoring defense, ranking sixth overall at 54.7 points allowed through three games played. That average also ranks 60th in the NCAA. The 95 total points the Rebels allowed through the first two games stood as one of just six Ole Miss teams to allow 100 points or fewer through the first two contests.

SHARING IS CARING
Ole Miss got off to a strong start in the assist department, notching 20 on 30 made field goals against Mississippi Valley State to open the season on Nov. 20. The Rebels had five games with at least 20 assists in 2018-19 after doing so only three times the year prior. Last season, Ole Miss was 6-5 when recording more assists than its opponent, but 3-16 on the opposite end of the spectrum.

INDIVIDUAL NOTES

#MississippiMade
Freshman and Pearl, Mississippi native Jayla Alexander was the offensive catalyst off the bench for the Rebels against New Orleans, more than doubling her previous career high of 10 points with a 21-point outing against the Privateers. Alexander, the No. 1 rated recruit out of the state of Mississippi last year, has played at least 18 minutes in each of her first three games as a Rebel. Helping her against UNO was a 5-of-8 clip from beyond the arc, tied for the second-most threes in a game among SEC players this season.

CAGE BACK IN THE SWING OF THINGS
Junior Deja Cage has showed no signs of having sat on the bench for an entire season, as she is currently the top scorer for the Rebels at 16.3 points per game with a 64.5 percent shooting clip and a 57.1 rate from three-point distance. Cage, a DePaul transfer that is also returning from a preseason injury, topped her previous career high of 15 points in each of her first two games, dropping 16 points in just 16 minutes in the season opener vs. Mississippi Valley State before leading the charge for the Rebels in her first career start against ULM with a 21-point outing on 4-of-6 three-point shooting.

Cage currently ranks as 12th-best scorer in the SEC and third-best three-point shooter with 2.7 treys per game.

COOKING WITH KITCHENS
Sophomore Iyanla Kitchens blossomed in a big way against ULM, recording her first double-double with career highs in points (10) and rebounds (10). Kitchens, who averaged 6.2 minutes per game her freshman season, is currently averaging 5.3 points and 5.3 rebounds through three games played in 2019-20.

SMITH IN SPOTLIGHT AS SOPHOMORE
Sophomore Taylor Smith emerged as a potent scoring threat for the Rebels after a career day against Mississippi Valley State. Smith, who entered this season with a career-high of nine points scored against Florida last season, doubled that with a demonstrative 18-point performance on 9-of-17 shooting. Smith started off a perfect 4-of-4 from the field thanks to a deadly mid-range jumper.

Smith is third on the team with 8.7 points per game and a 48.1 percent clip from the field.

AIR IT OUT, TORRI!
Senior three-point specialist Torri Lewis picked up right where she left off two years ago, draining 3-of-5 from beyond the arc for 11 total points against MVSU to start the season. Lewis, who returned for her redshirt senior season at Ole Miss after sitting out last year due to the birth of her son, A.J., is a career 34.2 percent three-point shooter. In her career, 84.9 percent of all of her field goals have come from three-point distance.

In her career, Lewis owns 27 games with multiple threes -- hitting seven or more threes in a game twice. She knocked down a school-record 10 in a game vs. New Orleans as a freshman in 2015 (the third-most in a single-game in NCAA history), and during her junior year, she nailed seven against Alabama.

During that junior season, Lewis was on fire from downtown in the final month of the season, going 16-of-32 in a stretch from deep from Feb. 1-11. That season, 90 percent of her made field goals were three-pointers and 131 of her 150 attempts were from beyond the arc (87.3 percent).

MIMI DIRECTING TRAFFIC
Sophomore guard Mimi Reid returned to her role as the floor general for the Rebels, notching six assists against MVSU and New Orleans -- the 11th and 12th times in her young career she has recorded at least six in a game. Reid was unflappable in this role as a redshirt freshman in 2018-19, spearheading what was an efficient Rebel offensive attack. She was the only player in the SEC last year with separate games of 11+ assists (vs. Louisiana) and 11+ rebounds (vs. Western Michigan), and she led all SEC freshmen with 4.3 assists per game (sixth overall). Reid was also the most efficient shooter for the Rebels last season, knocking down a team-high 40.2 percent of her field goal tries.

DOM ON THE BLOCK
Junior transfer Dominique Banks has been a force to reckon with on the block, averaging 6.7 rebounds and 3.0 blocks to go along with her 5.3 points per game average at the moment. Banks has started two games for the Rebels at the five position, and she currently ranks fifth in the SEC and 16th in the NCAA with her 3.0 blocks per game. Banks, a transfer from Gulf Coast State Community College, was part of an NJCAA national title team in 2019, shooting 52.6 percent from the field for Gulf Coast State.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

YEAR TWO FOR COACH YO
Ole Miss enters the second season of the Coach Yo era with Yolett McPhee-McCuin at the helm in 2019-20.

McPhee-McCuin took over a Rebel program that had just four returners and willed it to outperform all the preseason polls that had picked Ole Miss unanimously to finish last. The Rebels improved their SEC win total by two games from the year before, winning three conference contests – one of which was a thrilling 55-49 win at No. 16 Kentucky on Jan. 13. The win was the first over a ranked team on the road for Ole Miss since 2011 and the first win in general at UK since 2007.

McPhee-McCuin also mentored graduate transfer Crystal Allen, who in her lone season donning a Rebel jersey became one of the most electrifying players in the SEC. Allen finished the season third in the conference at 18.4 PPG and was named second-team All-SEC – the first Rebel to earn All-SEC honors since 2014-15.

BACK FOR MORE
Returning for the Rebels in 2019-20 are senior Torri Lewis, junior Deja Cage and sophomores Iyanla Kitchens, Mimi Reid and Taylor Smith. The three Ole Miss sophomores, however, were the only Rebel returnees to have seen action last season, as Lewis redshirted due to the birth of her son, A.J., and Cage sat out due to NCAA transfer rules.

FRESH FACES
Ole Miss will feature eight fresh faces this season:

#1 Sarah Dumitrescu • Fr. • G • 6-0
• Bucharest, Romania
• IMG Academy (Bradenton, Florida)
• Dual citizen of the United States and Romania
• Four-star prospect by Prospect Nation (No. 49 overall), three-star by ESPN
• On 2017 U18 FIBA team for Romania

#3 Donnetta Johnson • So. • G • 5-11
• Queens, New York
• Georgia transfer; will sit out 2019-20
• Played in 27 games, starting eight
• SEC Freshman of the Week after win vs. #13 Tennessee
• #28 guard nationally out of Baldwin High School

#4 Valerie Nesbitt • Jr. • G • 5-8
• Nassau, Bahamas
• Chipola College transfer
• Averaged 17.1 PPG and shot 45 percent last year
• First-Team All-Conference
• Played on the Bahamian National Team under Coach Yo

#12 Jordan Berry • Fr. • G • 5-7
• New Orleans, Louisiana
• Mount Carmel Academy
• Part of four state tournament teams
• Second-Team All-State in 2019
• Class Valedictorian

#13 Dominique Banks • Jr. • F • 6-5
• Atlanta, Georgia
• Gulf Coast State CC transfer
• Helped GCSCC win NJCAA title in 2019
• Shot 52.6 percent in 2019
• Averaged a double-double her senior year of high school at Maynard Jackson

#20 Jayla Alexander • Fr. • G • 5-9
• Pearl, Mississippi
• Pearl High School
• #1 player in Mississippi, #81 nationally
• 19.1 PPG, 7.4 RPG, 6.9 APG, 5.5 SPG
• 6A state championship game MVP

#25 Bryn Parker • Fr. • G • 6-0
• Scottsdale, Arizona
• Pinnacle High School
• Led team to 6A semi-state title in 2019
• 10.5 PPG, 9.2 RPG in 2019
• First-Team All-Region in 2019

#40 Andeija Puckett • Jr. • C • 6-2
• Griffin, Georgia
• Cincinnati transfer; will sit out 2019-20
• Part of WNIT team in 2019
• Played in all 35 games in 2018-19
• Top-100 recruit (18.0 PPG, 10.0 RPG)

REPLACING GREATNESS
Ole Miss will have to replace several significant contributors in 2019-20 after losing an excellent senior class last season. The four graduated seniors -- Crystal Allen (18.4 PPG), Cecilia Muhate (3.3 PPG), La'Karis Salter (8.1 PPG) and Shandricka Sessom (9.7 PPG)-- combined for 65.9 percent of all Rebel scoring last year.

Allen, the first Rebel to earn All-SEC honors in five years with a second-team nod, lit the net on fire, finishing the regular season third in the SEC at her 18.4 PPG.

VALUABLE EXPERIENCE
The three Rebel sophomore returnees -- Iyanla Kitchens, Mimi Reid and Taylor Smith -- all earned vauable experience as freshmen in 2018-19. All three started at least three games, combining for 41 total starts and a combined minute average of 19.1 per game. Reid received the most playing time, starting in 26 of 29 games played, while Smith tallied 12 starts of her own in 30 games played.

SMILE FOR THE CAMERA
Ole Miss will be featured on national television five times during the regular season, with all five on SEC Network. First is a Monday night primetime matchup at Texas A&M on Jan. 6. Two more road SEC Network games follow at Mississippi State on Jan. 26 and Vanderbilt on Feb. 9 before a home TV tilt vs. Arkansas on Feb. 16. Ole Miss wraps up its regular season SEC Network appearances with a trip to Missouri on Feb. 23. Additionally, all non-televised home games and road SEC games will be broadcast on SEC Network+. The entirety of the SEC Tournament (March 4-8, Bon Secours Wellness Arena, Greenville, South Carolina) will air on a combination of SEC Network, ESPNU and ESPN2.

Follow the Rebels on Twitter at @OleMissWBB, Facebook at Ole Miss WBB and on Instagram at Ole MissWBB. You can also follow head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin on Twitter at @YolettMcCuin

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Players Mentioned

Jayla Alexander

Crystal Allen

Dominique Banks

Jordan Berry

Deja Cage

Sarah Dumitrescu

Donnetta Johnson

Iyanla Kitchens

Torri Lewis

Cecilia Muhate

Bryn Parker

Andeija Puckett

Mimi Reid

La'Karis Salter

Shandricka Sessom

Taylor Smith

The University of Mississippi Athletics