GREENVILLE, S.C. — Ole Miss forward Latasha Lattimore scored 28 points and fellow senior Cotie McMahon was right behind her with 27 as the 24th-ranked, seventh-seeded Rebels built a 32-point third-quarter lead and held on late to beat fifth-ranked, second-seeded Vanderbilt 89-78 in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference women’s basketball tournament Friday at Bon Secours Wellness Arena.
Tianna Thompson added 16 points for the Rebels (23-10), who jumped to a 23-2 lead in the first quarter and rode the wave of momentum to their second win this season over the Commodores (27-4). Vanderbilt lost 83-75 to Ole Miss on Jan. 30 in a regular-season matchup that was scheduled as a home game for the Rebels but was moved to Birmingham, Alabama, due to the effects of a winter storm that hit Mississippi.
Ole Miss, which followed up on a 73-57 victory against 15th-seeded Auburn in Thursday’s second round, will face fourth-ranked, third-seeded Texas in Saturday’s second semifinal at 7 p.m.
The Rebels lost four straight games and six of eight to end the regular season, but now they’re a win away from reaching the SEC title game for the first time since losing the 1983 matchup. Their only other appearance in the title matchup was at the inaugural tournament, but this is their fourth semifinal trip in five years.
“I feel like the season is a lot of ups and downs, a lot of learning that you can do from wins and losses,” McMahon said in a postgame news conference. “But right now, our focus is what’s in front of us. Obviously, we didn’t end it (the regular season) how we wanted to. But like I said, it’s about what’s in front of us.
“Then what we can learn from those losses, I feel like that will help us go or make a run that we need to in either this tournament or next.”
Vanderbilt sophomore guard Mikayla Blakes, the SEC women’s basketball player of the year who averaged more than 30 points per game in conference play this season, missed her first 12 shots — including five 3s — and didn’t convert a field goal until 2:31 remained in the third quarter after battling early foul trouble.
Blakes then helped a fuel a frantic fourth-quarter rally in which Vanderbilt trimmed its deficit to nine points with three minutes to go. She finished with 24 points.
Aubrey Galvan added 18 points for Vanderbilt, which had a short stay in Greenville after receiving a double bye into the quarterfinals as one of the top four seeds in the 16-team bracket. The Commodores’ six SEC tournament titles trail only Tennessee’s 17 and South Carolina’s nine, but Vanderbilt hasn’t won the event since 2009.
Ole Miss took its huge early lead by holding the Commodores to 1-of-15 shooting and using quick hands to deflect passes and create steals that led to easy layups. Things got worse for Vanderbilt in the second quarter when Blakes picked up her third foul.
Frustrations began to boil over in the fourth quarter. Vanderbilt fifth-year head coach Shea Ralph was ejected with 9:25 left after walking to the middle of the court to argue with an official about a foul call that went against Blakes, who dived on the floor to retrieve a loose ball.
“I wasn’t trying to get kicked out,” Ralph said. “I was on the court. But I also think that at that time what I said was warranted. And the action that I took was warranted. You want to kick me out for it, then they can kick me out. What I do love is the fight of my team. There is only so many ways you can say something over and over again. So I said it differently (to the official) and got kicked out, which is fine. First time in my career.”
That moment seemed to awaken the Commodores, who rallied to cut the lead to nine on a steal and 3-point play by Galvan. Vanderbilt outscored Ole Miss 37-24 in the final period but had too much ground to make up.
“What I saw from my team was maybe the coolest thing that has happened all year,” said Ralph, who watched the rest of the game from the locker room. “The fight that they showed, the togetherness, just the way they responded was really special.”
Texas 83, Alabama 60
Jordan Lee scored 16 points, Madison Booker contributed 11 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in limited action, and Texas rolled into the semifinals while eliminating the 11th-seeded Crimson Tide.
Bryanna Preston added 13 points for Texas, which has won six straight games and 11 of 12 since back-to-back losses to LSU and South Carolina in mid-January.
Diana Collins, Alancia Ramsey and Jessica Timmons each scored eight points for Alabama (23-10), the only unranked team to reach the quarterfinals this year in Greenville.
This one was never competitive.
Alabama, which lost five of its final six regular-season games, seemed to find its footing by beating Missouri and Tennessee in the tournament’s first two rounds, but the Tide appeared to have run out gas by the time tipoff arrived Friday night.
The Longhorns, who improved to 29-3 overall, made 16 of 29 shots from the field to open the game and sprinted to a 40-12 lead early in the second quarter in front of a sparse crowd. Texas forced 14 turnovers in the first half and led by 33 at the break.
The lopsided margin afforded Texas coach Vic Schaefer an opportunity to rest his starters and other key players ahead of Saturday’s semifinal against Ole Miss. The Longhorns beat the Rebels 67-64 in Austin in early January.
Booker, a preseason AP All-American, might have had a shot at a triple-double Friday had she played more than 18 minutes. She finished 5-of-8 from the field.
South Carolina 87, Kentucky 64
Joyce Edwards scored 21 points, Madina Okot added 12 with 13 rebounds, and third-ranked, top-seeded South Carolina routed 17th-ranked, ninth-seeded Kentucky in the first quarterfinal of the day.
Tessa Johnson added 15 points and Ta’Niya Latson had 12 for the Gamecocks, who raced to a 17-point halftime lead and never let up on their first day at the tourney while playing some 100 miles northwest of their Columbia campus.
South Carolina (30-2) looked laser focused as it began its quest for a fourth straight SEC tournament title and 10th in the past 12 seasons under coach Dawn Staley, shooting 53% from the field, forcing 19 turnovers and outscoring Kentucky 46-24 in the paint.
The Gamecocks will play in Saturday’s first semifinal against sixth-ranked, fourth-seeded LSU at 4:30 p.m. The major contributors for the Tigers include former South Carolina point guard MiLaysia Fulwiley, a Columbia native who transferred after two seasons with the Gamecocks, who were NCAA Division I tournament champions her freshman season and national runners-up last year.
Amelia Hassett had 15 points and Clara Strack scored 13 to lead Kentucky (23-10), which beat 16th-seeded Arkansas by 30 points and 22nd-ranked, eighth-seeded Georgia by 15 to reach the quarterfinals. Strack had a combined 53 points and 21 rebounds against the Razorbacks and the Lady Bulldogs.
Whether or not fatigue played a factor, the Wildcats simply looked a step behind the fresh Gamecocks all game.
South Carolina raced out to a 44-27 lead entering halftime, using a big height advantage to dominate the paint 20-12 and a stifling defense to force 10 turnovers. Tessa Johnson provided the early spark with 12 points in the first half, and Okot had a double-double before the break.
South Carolina kept its foot on the gas in the second half, using a 13-6 run to build a 24-point lead, and was never threatened again. The big lead allowed Staley to rest her starters for the majority of the second half to keep them fresh for Saturday.
LSU 112, Oklahoma 78
Fulwiley had 22 points and eight assists, Flau’jae Johnson scored 16 of her 21 points in the second half, and LSU ran away from seventh-ranked, fifth-seeded Oklahoma in the day’s second quarterfinal for its fifth straight victory.
LSU post the second-highest point total in SEC tournament history; Tennessee beat Florida 118-44 in the second round of the 1980 event.
Mikaylah Williams scored 14 points and Jada Richard had 13 for the Tigers (27-4), who held the Sooners to 36% shooting from the field and forced 22 turnovers. LSU shot 53% and made 13 of 24 attempts from 3-point range.
Aaliyah Chavez scored 20 points and Sahara Williams had 19 points and nine rebounds for Oklahoma (24-7), which had won seven straight games. The Sooners have lost bost of their meetings with LSU this season, losing 91-72 when the Tigers visited Norman on Jan. 18.
LSU shot 57% in the first quarter and Fulwiley made a runner to beat the buzzer and give the Tigers a 28-19 lead. The Sooners twice got back within striking distance of the lead, but LSU began to pull away and increased its lead to 26 early in the fourth quarter.
Johnson made a 3 and then converted fast-break layup for a three-point play to push the lead to 30. The senior surpassed 2,000 career points, becoming the sixth player in LSU history to reach that milestone.
The Tigers, playing an up-tempo game, shut down Raegan Beers, holding the Sooners’ star center to six points. Beers came in averaging 16 points and 10.4 rebounds but got into foul trouble in the first quarter.
Next up for LSU is a second shot this season at South Carolina. The Gamecocks 79-72 in Baton Rouge in a Valentine’s Day matchup, extending South Carolina’s series winning streak to 18 games.
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