Playing a top-10 team under any circumstances is never easy. For Ole Miss women’s basketball, that was especially true as it took on No. 6 Vanderbilt in Birmingham, Alabama, while Oxford recovers from a devastating winter storm.
Ole Miss’ campus and much of the surrounding community were left without power and water after the storm hit Jan. 24-25. Roads were unsafe to use due to ice and downed trees and powerlines. Thousands are still without electricity, and Ole Miss’ campus is scheduled to remain closed through Feb. 8.
To accommodate the No. 17 Rebels (18-4, 5-2 SEC), their scheduled home game against the Commodores (20-2, 6-2) was moved from Oxford to Birmingham, Alabama, at Legacy Arena and pushed back a day to Jan. 30. Despite the changes, the Rebels emerged with an 83-75 win.
“Honestly, I’ve been crying all week just because my heart hurts for the people in our community,” Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said. “… This game, us playing, I told the team that this needed to be our way to show that we’re fighting alongside the people that are still there. … We’re lifting them up and wanted to try to bring them some joy.”
In addition to being grateful for the win, McPhee-McCuin was overflowing with gratitude for all the involved parties who helped make the game happen.
She thanked the SEC for letting them move to Birmingham and thanked Vanderbilt coach Shea Ralph for allowing the game to be pushed back so Ole Miss could make it to Birmingham in time for the game.
She also stated she was grateful for the team and their effort in getting the win despite what they’ve experienced in the last week. Forward Christeen Iwuala, who finished with 18 points and 14 rebounds for her eighth double-double of the season, expressed a similar sentiment.
“There’s still people back at home struggling with no power, no water,” she said. “And the fact that we get to be here, we get to be in a place where the SEC has been able to accommodate us and just allowed us to be able to play this game, we just knew that it was bigger than just us. It was for the whole city of Oxford.”
McPhee-McCuin said she and her staff were some of the many affected by the widespread power outages, and were “eating chips and anything we could get our hands on for like four days in a row.”
Still, she emphasized the advantageous position her team is in compared to others in Oxford as they plan to remain in Birmingham until their game against Auburn on Feb. 2 (6 p.m. CT, SEC Network+).
“We really try to not to feel sorry for ourselves,” McPhee-McCuin said. “We’d rather put our energy in feeling sorry for people without. We’re not without. Has it been easy? No, but we’re together, we have power, we have light, and it’s just a lot of people to thank because of that.”
Tia Reid covers Jackson State sports for the Clarion Ledger. Email her at treid@usatodayco.com and follow her on X @tiareid65.
