OXFORD — Meighan Simmons was sick. Her stomach hurt, her shot was off. Midway through the second half of the Tennessee women’s basketball team’s game Thursday at Ole Miss, she was 3-for-13 from the field.
“We considered just pulling her out,” Tennessee coach Holly Warlick said.
Good thing she didn’t.
Simmons caught fire and hit three consecutive 3-pointers, ending an Ole Miss rally and sealing a 77-65 victory.
“I knew that some way, somehow, I just had to keep shooting,” Simmons said. “My teammates and my coaches were pushing me to keep shooting.”
Tennessee (19-4, 8-2 Southeastern Conference) was 26 of 61 from the field (42.6 percent) and finished 18 of 21 from the free throw line.
Ole Miss (10-14, 1-9) challenged a few times in the first half, and even led for brief stretches, but Tennessee ended the half on an 18-9 run and led 37-28 at halftime.
The first 10 minutes of the second half were a virtual stalemate. Ole Miss kept the gap to single digits, but couldn’t keep Tennessee off the boards.
Then the Volunteers found Simmons.
“You never want to lose Simmons,” Ole Miss coach Matt Insell said. “She’s a player very similar (Ole Miss men’s basketball star) Marshall Henderson. She can miss five shots in a row and then turn around and hit five in a row.”
n No. 16 LSU 75, Missouri 58: At Baton Rouge, La., Theresa Plaisance scored 20 points and Jeanne Kenney added 19 to lead No. 16 LSU past Missouri on Thursday night.
Lianna Doty found Kayla McDowell for a layup with 15 minutes, 57 seconds to play, pulling Missouri within six, 46-40. LSU (18-5, 7-3) responded with a 14-0 run which opened up a 20-point lead for LSU.
Missouri (14-9, 3-7) responded immediately, scoring the game’s next 12 points to trim its deficit to eight, 60-52, with 6:35 remaining.
A jumper by Plaisance with just fewer than 6 minutes left pushed the LSU lead back to 10 and Missouri never got within single digits again as LSU made 11 of 12 free throws in the final 2:24.
Plaisance added nine rebounds and three blocked shots while Raigyne Moncrief finished with 15 points and four steals.
Brianna Kulas paced Missouri with 23 points. Morgan Eye finished with 12.
n Arkansas 55, Florida 49: At Fayetteville, Ark., Kelsey Brooks came off the bench to score 15 points and record seven steals to lead the Razorbacks (16-7, 3-7) past the Gators (16-7, 6-4) at Bud Walton Arena on Thursday night.
Brooks came up one short of the Arkansas SEC record for single-game steals and helped the Razorbacks force the Gators into 25 turnovers. It was the most steals in a game by a Razorback since Calli Berna had seven earlier in the season.
Brooks reached her highest point total since scoring 13 points on Dec. 20, 2013, at home against Tennessee Tech.
Fellow freshmen Jessica Jackson and McKenzie Adams also reached double digits, as Jackson finished with 13 points and six rebounds, while Adams had 10 points.
Brooks continued to find her range from outside and hit another 3-pointer late, which was followed by a basket inside from Jackson that gave Arkansas its largest lead, 50-42, with 3:41 to play.
Jaterra Bonds had 14 points and Kayla Lewis had 14 points and 10 rebounds for Florida.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.