FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Senior Valencia McFarland had a look at a 3-pointer that would have tied the game with two seconds left Sunday, but couldn’t get it to fall in the Ole Miss women’s basketball team’s 68-65 loss at Arkansas.
With the game tied at 59 with 3 minutes, 44 seconds left, Arkansas took a 62-60 lead before McFarland nailed a triple from the left side to give the lead back to the Rebels, but a layup from Arkansas’ Melissa Wolff coupled with the Razorbacks’ ability to hit free throws down the stretch sealed the deal.
“I challenged them at halftime to step up and stop letting people just score on them at will and what an effort in the second half,” Ole Miss coach Matt Insell said. “We were down 16 with 16 minutes to go and they could have quit, but this team they kept fighting and I’m hurting for them.”
McFarland led Ole Miss with 25 points — her second consecutive game of 20 or more — and was joined in double figures by Monique Jackson, who had a career-high 11 points off the bench. Tia Faleru had a team-best seven rebounds for Ole Miss (9-10, 0-5 Southeastern Conference).
Jessica Jackson had a career-high 31 points for Arkansas (15-4, 2-4), which its lead to 45-32 — the largest of the game at the first media timeout of the half, but Shequila Joseph nailed a 3-pointer just before the media timeout that sparked the Rebels.
After the media timeout, the Rebels embarked on a 22-2 run to cut the once 13-point lead to just one possession, 45-42, with 11:57 left. Ole Miss took the lead on a McFarland layup and pushed it all the way to seven points at the 7:10 mark. Arkansas battled back and forced a tied at 57 with 4:34 remaining to set up the close finish.
n No. 8 South Carolina 77, Alabama 51: At Columbia, S.C., Kristy Curry understands things will eventually improve for Alabama. She just had to look at her coaching rival Sunday for proof that better days are possible.
Curry’s first-year program took another double-digit hit in the Southeastern Conference — its third such SEC loss in five games this season — to the eighth-ranked Gamecocks, the Crimson Tide’s eighth-straight defeat in the series.
Curry, brought in from Texas Tech to rebuild, recalls Dawn Staley’s early struggles at South Carolina when it took the Hall of Famer four seasons before her team posted a winning conference record. Now, Staley’s group is among the league leaders and top team teams in the country.
“You look up five years ago and I believe Dawn was in a very similar spot,” Curry said, “so we have a lot of respect for her process here and how she’s handled that. I think we’ve all been in that journey.”
For the Crimson Tide, it’s about forgetting the problems that crop up against taller, more established teams. Alabama shot just 21 percent in a 61-39 loss to rival Auburn and were under 33 percent against the Gamecocks.
The Tide were outrebounded 43-24 and had no answer for South Carolina’s frontline of 6-foot-4 Elem Ibiam, 6-4 Alaina Coates and 6-foot Aleighsa Welch, who combined for 40 points and 28 rebounds.
“We understand what it’s about. I think the most important thing is these kids understand and that we just work to win the day,” Curry said.
Ibiam scored 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting and added seven rebounds and two blocks. Welch had 12 points and 10 boards, while Coates had 10 points and nine rebounds.
“It felt good to try and get that early start,” Ibiam said. “We’ve been talking all year about what changes we need to make or what we need to do before the game to get us out of the gate early.”
South Carolina might want to repeat what it did before this one. Alabama fell behind by double digits eight minutes in and could never close the gap. The Gamecocks eventually led 60-31 on Coates foul shots with 13 minutes to go.
Ashley Williams had 16 points to lead the Crimson Tide.
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