Appearing in its third consecutive SEC Tournament Quarterfinal and in its first tournament meeting against Texas A&M, Ole Miss gutted out its fourth straight win against the Aggies, 77-60 on Friday afternoon from Bon Secours Wellness Arena. The Rebels advance to Saturday’s semifinal matchup against No. 1 South Carolina.
Ole Miss (23-7, 11-5 SEC) shot the lights out with one of its best shooting performances of the season at an 50.8% clip against Texas A&M (9-20, 2-14 SEC). On defense, the Rebels forced 22 turnovers to score 25 points off of Aggie miscues.
Angel Baker keeps getting buckets dropping 23 points for her eighth 20-point piece of the season. Baker now rides a five-game double-digit scoring streak heading into Saturday. It was a super team performance from the Rebels with Madison Scott, Marquesha Davis and Elauna Eaton joinng Baker in double-figures. Scott finished with 16, Davis at 14 and Eaton went a perfect 3-of-3 from beyond the arc for 11 points.
A Baker triple to opened up scoring, with five of Ole Miss’ first six points. Utilizing the three ball, Eaton’s second triple of the day allowed the Rebels to extend its lead up by 10 at 14-4 midway through the first quarter. The Aggies answered with a 6-0 run, capitalizing off of Rebel foul trouble to score at the charity stripe to close the gap to 17-14 through one.
There’s a reason why Baker was named First Team All-SEC, as the senior continued to carry Ole Miss as it worked to extend its lead over the Aggies. Her third three followed by back-to-back jumpers from Davis put Ole Miss up by seven in the second. Defensively, Ole Miss began to lock down, forcing three straight Texas A&M turnovers to assert control. Ending the half on a 5-0 run gave Ole Miss an 11-point lead at 40-29 to head into the break.
Shots continued to fall as Ole Miss’ hands remained hot, while remaining united on defense to restrict the Aggies to multiple scoring droughts throughout the third. The Rebels held the Aggies to a game-low 13 points in the quarter.
As one of the best three-point defenses in the country, Ole Miss made the Aggies try to work on the inside which worked to the Rebel advantage. The Rebels went up by as many as 26 in the fourth quarter to put its second straight semifinal in sight. With all 10 available Rebels making an appearance, Ole Miss walked away with the 77-60 win to advance to Saturday against No. 1 South Carolina at 4:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network.
Courtesy of OleMissSports
