OXFORD — Christina Foggie scored 28 points as the No. 24 Vanderbilt women’s basketball team outlasted Ole Miss 80-74 on Thursday night.
Vanderbilt (15-3, 4-1 Southeastern Conference) pulled away in the second half as Foggie scored seven points in a span of 1 minute, 18 seconds to give the Commodores a 65-60 lead with less than six minutes left.
A 3-pointer from Valencia McFarland cut the Vanderbilt lead to 70-67 with 3:32 left before Vanderbilt responded with an 8-1 run to open a 78-68 lead with 1:24 remaining.
“I was proud of the effort and the commitment they made,” Ole Miss coach Matt Insell said.” We gave our kids a game plan, and they executed it well offensively all night. We did a lot better job defensively. In the second half, we got the stop we needed, but just couldn’t get that rebound. We’ll get there, and I’m proud of their effort. It was a great basketball game that we had a chance to win in the end, and we’ll start winning those games.”
Vanderbilt outscored Ole Miss 43-36 in the second half after trailing by a point at halftime.
Jasmine Lister had 17 points for Vanderbilt and Morgan Batey added 11.
McFarland led Ole Miss (9-9, 0-4) with a career-high 28 points. Tia Faleru added 20 points. Faleru and Kenyotta Jenkins led the Ole Miss rebounding efforts with five and four rebounds, respectively.
Vanderbilt has won 12 of their last 13, and recently entered the rankings following an upset of No. 8 Tennessee.
Ole Miss will play at 2 p.m. Sunday at Arkansas.
n Auburn 61, Alabama 39: At Tuscaloosa, Ala., Tyrese Tanner had 15 points, nine rebounds, three blocked shots, and three steals to help the Tigers beat the Crimson Tide at Coleman Coliseum.
Alabama (8-9, 1-3 Southeastern Conference) shot 21.7 percent (13 of 60), while Auburn hit 42.9 percent (24 of 56). The Tigers outrebounded the Crimson Tide 52-38. They also had 10 blocked shots.
Senior Shafontaye Myers led Alabama in scoring with 14 points, while freshman Ashley Williams added 12. Junior Briana Hutchen pulled down a career and game-high 14 rebounds.
“The first thing I want to do is thank our crowd,” Alabama coach Kristy Curry said. “I’m disappointed in the outcome at home for them tonight and our players, but I thought the crowd was great. We hope they will come back and see us. I just appreciate the student support and the crowd tonight. I’m disappointed in the outcome. We will do everything we can to go back, go to work and fix it.
Tanner knocked down the first basket of the game to give the Tigers the lead for good. Auburn’s lead remained in the single digits until midway through the half and grew to 27 as the Tigers closed out the frame on a 27-5 run to lead 41-14 at halftime.
“I’m really proud of the young ladies to come out in the first half who set the tone,” Auburn Head Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. “I thought they did a really good job of changing defenses. We wanted to continue to change our defense to keep Daisha Simmons off balance because she’s a very good point guard. More importantly, we were also able to hit shots; I mean, we shot 52 percent in the first half and it’s easy to put yourself ahead playing defense and shooting well.”
Auburn extended its lead to 29 points in the second half. Alabama cut it to 20 but couldn’t get any closer.
“It was a tale of two completely different halves,” Curry said. “We outscored them the second half, but you have to put halves together. Basketball is a game of runs. Their run was very impactful. You credit Auburn. You credit their size and ability. They dominated the glass. They dominated us defensively.
You can’t coach size, but it’s something we work on in recruiting. We don’t have that. There are certain things we can control. I didn’t think we were aggressive in the first half. For that reason you credit Auburn. We have to individually look and do something about that.”
Alabama will play at 2 p.m. Sunday at No. 8 South Carolina.
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