NCAAW
Head coach Shea Ralph was ejected on Friday for the first time in her career. Carly Mackler / Getty Images
Vanderbilt entered the SEC tournament likely needing two wins to earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Instead, the Commodores were thoroughly outclassed by Ole Miss in their opener, losing 89-78. To add insult to injury, Vanderbilt coach Shea Ralph was ejected with 9:25 remaining after she argued a foul call while her team was trailing by 24 points. It was Ralph’s first ejection in her head-coaching career.
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Ralph’s dismissal was the lone spark for the Commodores in an otherwise listless performance. After trailing by as many as 32 points, Vanderbilt made a furious comeback in the fourth quarter, thanks to a 15-0 run following the ejection. Yet the Commodores pulled no closer than 11, prematurely ending their conference tournament run and dooming them to a No. 2 seed on Selection Sunday.
They scored six points in the first quarter, their lowest total of the season, and trailed by 19 points after the opening period. Mikayla Blakes, the nation’s leading scorer, was blanketed by the Rebels’ defense, missing her first 10 field goal attempts and picking up three fouls in the first half, forcing her to sit for the final 4:35 before halftime.
Blakes missed 19 consecutive field goals against Ole Miss, including the regular-season meeting between the two teams. The presumptive All-American finally started to find her footing near the end of the third quarter, hitting two 3-pointers to close the period. Blakes picked up her fourth foul 35 seconds into the fourth quarter, which prompted Ralph to walk onto the court and swear at the officials, earning an ejection.
“What I said was warranted, and the action that I took was warranted, and I’ll stand behind that.”
Vanderbilt head coach Shea Ralph was just ejected after Mikayla Blakes picked up her fourth foul
“How is that a f***ing foul??” @NoCapSpaceWBB pic.twitter.com/rnKbjVD0CO
— Tyler DeLuca (@TylerDeLuca) March 7, 2026
The Rebels have had Vanderbilt’s number this season, earning a neutral-site win over the Commodores during their lone regular-season meeting. Ole Miss also jumped out to an early lead in that matchup, leading by 20 in the first half before a late Vanderbilt comeback.
The Rebels’ key to those two wins was Cotie McMahon. Although Blakes was the SEC player of the year, McMahon has been the best player in these games. Her size was too much for Vanderbilt’s perimeter defenders to contain in the first meeting, and the Rebels put the ball in her hands down the stretch, allowing her to muscle through Aubrey Galvan. On Friday, the Commodores were once again powerless to stop McMahon, an Ohio State transfer, and instead sent her to the free-throw line 17 times; she ended the game with as many made free throws (15) as Vanderbilt.
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McMahon finished with 27 points and seven assists. Latasha Lattimore was the Rebels’ leading scorer with 28 points on 12-of-13 shooting, often the beneficiary of dump-offs when the defense sent extra help to McMahon.
The Commodores have had two noncompetitive losses this season, against South Carolina and Ole Miss. The two were against teams with long, athletic perimeter defenders that disrupted them from the get-go.
Vanderbilt now has two weeks off until the start of the NCAA Tournament, while the Rebels have an outside chance to host in the first two rounds. Ole Miss lost the final four games of the regular season while dealing with some injury absences to fall out of the top 16 on March 1. The Rebels, now back at full strength, can make their case with another win in the SEC semifinals, as they take on the winner of Texas versus Alabama on Saturday.
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Sabreena Merchant is a women’s basketball Staff Writer for The Athletic. She previously covered the WNBA and NBA for SB Nation. Sabreena is an alum of Duke University, where she wrote for the independent student newspaper, The Chronicle. She is based in Los Angeles. Follow Sabreena on Twitter @sabreenajm
