What Coach Yo said about Ole Miss' hot start, defense vs Vanderbilt, Mikayla Blakes – The Clarion-Ledger

GREENVILLE, SC — Cotie McMahon’s eyes perked up, as if she was waiting for the question all night.
“Dictating and disrupting,” the senior forward for Ole Miss women’s basketball said.
Those were the only words McMahon said when asked what the defensive keys were for the Rebels in their SEC Tournament quarterfinals matchup with No. 2 seed Vanderbilt on March. 6 at Bon Secours Arena.
Those keys unlocked a win, as No. 7 seed Ole Miss (23-10) defeated Vanderbilt (27-4) 89-78 to advance to the semifinals.
“We came out and executed our game plan from the jump,” said Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin. “These girls know that they’re a good team, but sometimes they shock themselves.”
The “shock” was Ole Miss holding Vanderbilt to just six points in the first quarter, a season-low for the Commodores. And even more impressively, the Rebels held Vanderbilt’s sophomore guard and SEC Player of the Year Mikayla Blakes to one point in the first half.
“When we say we want to dictate teams, it means we want to force teams to take shots that we want them to take,” McPhee-McCuin said. “And when we say we want to disrupt teams, it means we want to stop them from doing anything that they want to do. Our team really believes in that philosophy, and that’s how we approached defending Mikayla.”
Blakes went 0-for-11 in the first half, but she found her spark in the fourth quarter and finished with 23 points.
The Rebels led the Commodores by 32 points at one point. But Ole Miss got outscored 61-40 in the second half.
“We’ll use the end of the game and the runs they (Vanderbilt) had as a learning experience to handle it better in the future,” McPhee-McCuin said. “But, I’m not going to let anything take away from the fact that we just beat the No. 5 team in the country. It was a complete game from our team, and I’m super proud of these ladies.’
Ole Miss’ lightning start vs Vanderbilt has unlocked a sense of confidence heading into the semifinals.
“I believe that it’s harder to win an SEC championship than an NCAA championship,” McPhee-McCuin said, chuckling. “When you look at the teams we have to play night in and night out, it’s some of the best in women’s college basketball. So, we don’t take victories like this for granted.
“Of course, I’d love for us to win an SEC championship. But I’d also love for us to be in Phoenix for the Final Four. Everything we learn from this tournament, we’re going to use for the remainder of the season.”
Ole Miss will play No. 3 seed Texas (29-3) in the semifinals on March 7 at 6 p.m. at ESPN2.
Kamryn Jackson covers high school and college sports for the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, Greenville News, Anderson Independent Mail, and the USA TODAY Network. Please email her at [email protected] and follow her on X @KamxJack (formerly Twitter).

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