NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt forced 27 Mississippi turnovers and got 19 points from freshman Iyana Moore, but the visiting Rebels pulled away over the final minutes to win 57-47 inside Memorial Gymnasium.
Moore went 8 of 16 from the field before being held scoreless in the fourth quarter. Vandy (12-16, 3-11 SEC) led with 5:12 to play.
Jordyn Cambridge chipped in eight points to go along with six steals for Vanderbilt which next hosts No. 17 Florida (20-6, 10-3 SEC) at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.
Vandy led 39-38 going into the final period and that’s the way the score remained for the first 3:08 of the quarter. Shakira Austin’s two free throws gave the Rebels the lead back at 40-39.
The Commodores went up 45-41 on back-to-back Demi Washington buckets with a less than six minutes to go. Ole Miss responded with eight straight to inch back ahead with 2:39 to play which forced a Vandy timeout.
Ole Miss would go on to end the game on what would amount to a 16-2 run to close out the victory.
A back-and-forth first quarter that had six leads changes saw Ole Miss inch ahead 13-9 at the 1:29 mark thanks to a Donnetta Johnson layup. The Rebels would take a 13-11 lead into the second period despite seven turnovers forced by Vandy.
Ole Miss couldn’t grow its lead larger than four as Vanderbilt kept the defensive pressure up. Brinae Alexander was able to finally tie the game at 23-all with a jumper at the 1:21 mark.
Less than one minute later Vandy retook the lead on an Moore layup, but Lashonda Monk’s buzzer-beating bucket tied the game at 25-25 going into the break.
Vanderbilt recorded 11 steals over the first 20 minutes and forced 17 Ole Miss turnovers. Moore had 10 points at the break.
Moore gave the Dores a 30-27 lead with a 3-ball early in the third quarter, but the Rebels responded with a 9-0 run to take their biggest lead of the game at that point at 36-30. Vandy fought back and tied the game with 41 seconds to go in the period on Moore’s layup that knotted the contest at 38-all.
A single free throw by Cambridge put Vanderbilt ahead 39-38 going into the final and decisive quarter.
Austin had 22 points and 15 rebounds to lead Ole Miss (20-6, 8-5 SEC).
The two teams combined to go 1 of 17 from behind the arc and record just 12 combined assists.
- On Sunday, Cambridge reached 100 steals for the season making her the only player in men’s and women’s Division I basketball to have 100 steals and 100 assists this season.
- Cambridge now has 102 steals for the 2021-22 season and 207 for her career. She needs four steals to enter the top 10 for steals in a Vanderbilt career.
- Sacha Washington earned her first career start for Vanderbilt.
- Vanderbilt now leads the all-time series with Ole Miss 31-18 and is 20-4 as the home team.
- Attendance on Sunday was announced as 1,964.
