The last time No. 14 Ole Miss faced a ranked opponent, it had to pull off the biggest comeback in program history to get the win.
The Rebels were able to overcome a 19-point deficit to beat Notre Dame earlier this month. They’ll hope to avoid repeating that historic day on Monday against No. 24 Michigan State in the championship round of the Cherokee Invitational.
“We’re going to have to earn this win,” Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said about the upcoming game. “Two ranked teams, we’ve already played a ranked team in Notre Dame and this time it’s at a neutral court. This is definitely the test we need going into conference play.”
Ole Miss advanced to the championship game with an 86-57 win against Old Dominion on Sunday night.
Rebs advance to the championship round against Michigan State! #HottyToddy x #Give pic.twitter.com/e5tm4abABs
— Ole Miss Women's BB (@OleMissWBB) December 22, 2025
Christeen Iwuala tallied another double-double to her career season, having a career-high 23 points and team-leading 10 rebounds. Cotie McMahon was no slouch offensively either, tallying 19 points with seven rebounds and Latasha Lattimore contributed 15 points and four blocks, her third consecutive game with multiple blocks.
The game played as expected with a ranked SEC team facing a mid-major program. The Rebels led 33-19 at halftime, but Old Dominion flashed some upset potential in the third quarter, outscoring Ole Miss 28-24.
“We let them score 28 points in the third quarter, and they didn’t even score 28 points in the first half,” McPhee-McCuin said. “It was just a complete letdown where we have to show a level of maturity. We kind of got bored, and we stopped putting the pedal to the metal on that.”
The fourth quarter stayed closer to the script with Ole Miss outscoring Old Dominion 29-10. McPhee-McCuin had to take a play out of Ole Miss men’s basketball coach Chris Beard’s playbook to refocus the Rebels for the final quarter.
“I told them if they didn’t play hard, they won’t play for the rest of the game,” McPhee-McCuin said. “I told them that that would speak more to their character than anything.
“You know, they’re kids, I get it. They were scoring, so they were just loving life. But I told them if they continue doing that, I’m going to pull them and they won’t get to play and these kids love to play. So, they started to really lock in.”
The strategy worked, unlike it did for Beard and the Rebels against NC State earlier Sunday.
Tipoff for the championship game of the Cherokee Invitational between Ole Miss and Michigan State is set for 6:30 p.m. on WSN.
