UA nips Ole Miss
The University of Arkansas women stopped Mississippi’s fourth-quarter comeback attempt to win 73-72 victory Sunday for their first SEC victory of the season.
FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville escaped with a 7372 victory Sunday at Walton Arena, stopping the Ole Miss Rebels’ fourth-quarter comeback attempt for its first SEC women’s victory of the season.
“This is a really big confidence booster for us,” Razorbacks (10-4, 1-0) guard Devin Cosper said. “They picked us to finish last in the SEC, and we’re just going to use that to our advantage.”
Cosper had her sixth double-double of the season, scoring 18 and grabbing 11 rebounds. She also hit a three-pointer to stop an Ole Miss run, but it was guard Malica Monk who came away with the biggest play of the night.
Ole Miss (10-4, 0-1) guard Alissa Alston tried to bounce an inbound pass off the back of Arkansas forward Taylah Thomas with five seconds left, but Monk reached in and stole the ball to secure the victory.
“I’ll be danged if she didn’t go out there and get that steal,” Arkansas Coach Mike Neighbors said.
Neighbors picked up a technical foul with 7:25 left in the game, which added to the Rebels’ comeback and caused the coach some worry, he said.
“You always do as a coach when it starts looking like a one- or two-point game and you know you’ve probably cost your team a couple of points,” Neighbors said about the technical. “I did worry about it. If we had lost by one, I probably wouldn’t have slept very much.”
In other Top 25/SEC women’s games Sunday, A’ja Wilson scored 25 points, including the go-ahead basket with 1.3 seconds left, as No. 4 South Carolina (12-1) rallied from 11 points down in the final 13 minutes to upend No. 22 Texas
(11-4) 61-59 to open SEC play.
… Evina Westbrook scored 17 points, Mercedes Russell added 16 and No. 7 Tennessee (13-0) started quickly against Kentucky (8-7) and didn’t let up in rolling to a 63-49 victory in the SEC opener for both schools. … Jordan Chavis made 4 three-pointers and scored 17 points, Sophie Cunningham added 13 points and No. 16 Missouri (13-1) beat Alabama (10-4) 62-57.