GREENVILLE, S.C. — Ole Miss forward Latasha Lattimore scored 28 points and fellow senior Cotie McMahon was right behind her with 27 as the 24th-ranked, seventh-seeded Rebels built a 32-point third-quarter lead and held on late to beat fifth-ranked, second-seeded Vanderbilt 89-78 in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference women’s basketball tournament Friday at Bon Secours Wellness Arena.
Tianna Thompson added 16 points for the Rebels (23-10), who jumped to a 23-2 lead in the first quarter and rode the wave of momentum to their second win this season over the Commodores (27-4). Vanderbilt lost 83-75 to Ole Miss on Jan. 30 in a regular-season matchup that was scheduled as a home game for the Rebels but was moved to Birmingham, Alabama, due to the effects of a winter storm that hit Mississippi.
Ole Miss, which followed up on a 73-57 victory against 15th-seeded Auburn in Thursday’s second round, will face fourth-ranked, third-seeded Texas in Saturday’s second semifinal at 7 p.m.
The Rebels lost four straight games and six of eight to end the regular season, but now they’re a win away from reaching the SEC title game for the first time since losing the 1983 matchup. Their only other appearance in the title matchup was at the inaugural tournament, but this is their fourth semifinal trip in five years.
“I feel like the season is a lot of ups and downs, a lot of learning that you can do from wins and losses,” McMahon said in a postgame news conference. “But right now, our focus is what’s in front of us. Obviously, we didn’t end it (the regular season) how we wanted to. But like I said, it’s about what’s in front of us.