Coach Yo Reveals Why Ole Miss Women's Basketball's Win Over Georgia Was 'Needed'

Ole Miss women's basketball returned to the win column on Thursday night.

Mar 23, 2024; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Ole Miss Rebels head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin yells to her players in the first half against the Marquette Golden Eagles at the Purcell Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-Imagn Images | Matt Cashore-Imagn Images

Ole Miss Rebels women's basketball suffered a heartbreaking loss to Texas over the weekend, but on Thursday, the team bounced back with a 63-58 win over the Georgia Bulldogs.

The game wasn't always pretty for Ole Miss (who was outscored in three quarters on Thursday night), but the Rebels did enough to win. After the game, head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin discussed why she thought a win like this was "needed" by her program.

"Anybody that covers sports knows how hard it is to win on the road," McPhee-McCuin said. "I went to bed last night knowing we were either going to not even let it be a game, or we're going to have to gut it out. Because we're getting ready to go on the road again against a ranked team, I believe we needed a victory like this.

"Probably one of our best wins of the season because a lot of adversity happened, and our team still figured out how to win. They stayed composed, they stayed together in spite of it."

Ole Miss was led in scoring by Madison Scott on Thursday night with 19 points, and she was joined in double digits by Kennedy Todd-Williams with 15. As a team, the Rebels shot 32.7 percent from the field and 31.6 percent from three compared to Georgia's percentages of 43.2 and 57.1, respectively.

Coach Yo's Rebels trailed 10-9 at the end of the first quarter, and they were outscored 19-18 in the third and 16-14 in the fourth. The second quarter proved to be the deciding frame of the game as Ole Miss bested Georgia 22-13 in that period.

"When you lose an emotional game like we did against Texas, there's a lot of stuff that comes with that," McPhee-McCuin said. "That was still in the back of our players' minds. What I loved about what they did was they figured out how to win. When you've watched us, when it's gotten crazy, we have not always figured out how to win."

Now, the Rebels will hit the road again on Sunday to take on the No. 23 Vanderbilt Commodores in Nashville. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. CT on SEC Network+.