There’s no such thing as a “good loss” in February, but there are nights that tell you something about where a team stands.
No. 17 Ole Miss didn’t beat No. 7 LSU on Thursday, but it absolutely showed it can go punch‑for‑punch with one of the best teams in the country.
The Rebels fell 78-70, but the game never felt out of reach.
It wasn’t one of those nights where you walk out of the SJB Pavilion wondering what went wrong. If anything, it was the opposite. Ole Miss looked like a team that’s settling into who it is, even against a top‑10 opponent with national expectations.
“I’m super proud of my team. This has been a really challenging time for us, and anyone who watched the game could see that we ran out of gas,” Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said. “I’m not taking anything away from LSU, but we lost by seven in the fourth quarter, and it wasn’t because we didn’t get shots. We missed 17 shots around the basket. I didn’t think our effort hurt us. We shot 58 percent from the free-throw line in the fourth. There are a lot of positive things to take from this.”
And, as usual, Cotie McMahon was the center of it all.
COTIE SHE HAS A FAMILY#Hottytoddy x #Give pic.twitter.com/51ZGWwE9gS
— Ole Miss Women's BB (@OleMissWBB) February 20, 2026
She dropped 25 points, which at this point feels like her baseline. That’s 17 games with 20 or more this season, tying Peggie Gillom for the third‑most in a single year by any Rebel. She’s also hit double figures in 27 games, the most by an Ole Miss player since 2019.
What helped Thursday was that she wasn’t alone. Christeen Iwuala and Latasha Lattimore both gave Ole Miss exactly what it needed inside: 13 and 12 points, eight rebounds each, and Lattimore adding three blocks, which is something she’s done 11 times this season. That kind of frontcourt stability matters when you’re trying to match LSU’s size and athleticism.
The game itself had a nice rhythm to it. LSU jumped out early, but Ole Miss didn’t panic. McMahon hit a couple of threes, the pace picked up, and suddenly the Tigers’ lead was cut in half by the end of the first quarter. By the second, the Rebels were trading buckets, tying the game, and eventually taking a 43-37 lead into halftime thanks to a last‑second putback from J’Adore Young.
The third quarter was probably the most fun stretch of basketball Ole Miss has played in a while. Tianna Thompson hit a pair of threes, saved a loose ball that looked destined for the sideline, grabbed an offensive rebound, and set up Iwuala for an easy bucket.
GET THAT OUTTA HERE#Hottytoddy x #Give pic.twitter.com/xOy9cPl4DL
— Ole Miss Women's BB (@OleMissWBB) February 20, 2026
It was the kind of hustle sequence that gets a crowd moving. When Thompson buried another triple to push the lead to 13, the Pavilion felt like it was ready to tilt.
But LSU is LSU.
They tightened up defensively, forced turnovers, and chipped away. Ole Miss still had answers but the Tigers controlled the fourth quarter and closed it out the way veteran teams do.
“I think the fourth quarter was completely on us,” McMahon said. “We had a lot of shots around the rim that we usually don’t miss, and we just couldn’t finish — even on putbacks. Those are shots we normally make. Some of the shots I took could have been better. I think we were just a little tired.”
Even so, this wasn’t a step backward for Ole Miss. If anything, it was a reminder that the Rebels can stand in the ring with top‑10 teams and make them work for everything. The effort was there. The execution was there for long stretches. And the pieces continue to look like they’re growing into something sustainable.
Now the challenge gets even bigger: a trip to Columbia to face No. 3 South Carolina on Sunday morning, with College GameDay in the building. It’s another chance to show the same thing Ole Miss showed Thursday — that it belongs on this stage.
And if the Rebels keep stacking performances like this, the wins in these moments won’t be far away.
