In search of its first home win of the season, Memphis women’s basketball welcomed regional rivals No. 13 Ole Miss to Elma Roane Fieldhouse for the first time since 2009 Tuesday night.
The Tigers showed an immense amount of fight against one of the best teams in the country but couldn’t hang on to an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter and lost in overtime 73-64.
“I thought our players played hard, we played a very disciplined 40-minute game,” Tigers coach Alex Simmons said postgame. “I’m proud of the team for their fight but those were the (games) that we want, we really, really want to finish. Especially at home with that crowd.”
As the game got underway in front of 1,217 fans, it was clear that it was going to be a grindy and defensive affair. Both teams shot below 40% from the field for the entire game and had a staggering amount of turnovers.
It was this defensive excellence from Memphis that put the Tigers in the game to begin with. Ole Miss has one of the best offenses in the country, but the Rebels were held to just 28 points in the first half, a season low for them, and were down by one going into halftime.
“Our goal was to hold them to 70,” Simmons said. “I felt like if we can hold them to 70, it would give us a chance. And obviously we did that before overtime.”
Offensively for the Tigers, the bright spots were in the electric guard pairing of Chaé Harris and Daejah Richmond who combined for 46 of Memphis’ 64 points. No one else scored in double digits and the next highest scorer, which was Cori Allen with six, made just two shots in 13 tries.
The Tiger defense continued to be stout in the third quarter, holding the Rebels to just 3-18 from the field while Harris and Richmond continued to go off. The complimentary basketball eventually turned into an 11-point lead going into the fourth quarter, while the home crowd slowly got louder as the prospect of a program-defining win became more and more realistic.
In the fourth, however, the top-15 Rebels showed why they are ranked that high. They drilled a pair of threes to cut the Tigers lead to five and started to play solid defense, holding the home team to just six points. Eventually, Ole Miss would pull even with Memphis and force an extra five-minute period.
“No one has swung back at us yet, but (Memphis) swung back,” Rebels coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said. “When we went into overtime, I felt pretty confident that we could win the game.”
That is exactly what happened, as Memphis just ran out of gas in overtime and Ole Miss capitalized on that to escape the Bluff City with a win. While it may not be the result the Tigers wanted, it was still a phenomenal showing against a nationally ranked team and shows a lot of promise for the rest of the season.
“I think when we perform like that, if anything, there should be some motivation there,” Simmons said. “I think we have to recommit to our goals that we set for ourselves and just use it as momentum moving forward.”
The Tigers will suit up again on Saturday at 2 p.m. against ETSU in Elma Roane Fieldhouse. The game will also be streamed live on ESPN+.
