Two Mississippi teams will be playing when the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament begins this week.
Starting with Ole Miss (23-8, 12-4 SEC), the Rebels were fielded as a No. 7 seed and will play No. 10 Marquette (23-8, 11-7 Big East) in the opening round in South Bend, Indiana. Tipoff is set for Saturday, March 23 at 4:45 p.m. on ESPNU.
TICKET = PUNCHED 🎟️ pic.twitter.com/E5yM7llZ7s
— Ole Miss Women’s BB (@OleMissWBB) March 18, 2024
After losing starting point guard KK Deans early in the season, Yolett McPhee-McCuin’s squad was forced to adapt. In February, the Rebels found their stride, going on a seven-game winning streak before finishing the season third in the SEC.
Marquesha Davis leads the team with 14.6 points per game while Madison Scott is averaging 12.4. On the defensive side of the ball, Ole Miss has become one of the better teams in the country, holding their opponents to a 37.7 percent shooting percentage and averaging 6.1 blocks per contest.
Last season, the Rebels made it to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2007 before falling to Louisville. They will look to go even further this year.
160 miles south of Oxford in Jackson, the Tigers of Jackson State (26-6, 18-0 SWAC) found out their first-round opponent as well. After winning the SWAC Championship game for the third time in four years on Saturday, Tomekia Reed’s team will face off against blue-blood UConn (29-5, 18-0 Big East) in Storrs, Connecticut. Tipoff is set for Saturday, March 23 at 1 p.m. on ABC.
The Tigers were fielded as a No. 14 seed while the Huskies are a No. 3 seed. Jackson State, going into its seventh NCAA Tournament, will look to win its first-ever tourney game after narrowly falling to LSU in 2022.
Leading the way so far has been Andriana Avent with 12.3 points per game. Ti’lan Boler and Maya Crump aren’t too far behind with scoring averages of 11.7 and 11.6, respectively.