Vanderbilt Commodores Suffers Another SEC Blowout in Loss to Ole Miss
The Vanderbilt Commodores women's basketball team suffered their second straight loss on Thursday night, this time to the Ole Miss Rebels by a score of 87-59.
After a great performance to start their non-conference schedule, the Commodores are struggling in SEC play after a league-opening win over Georgia.
Vanderbilt is now 14-3 on the season and 1-2 in conference play. In the always-tough SEC, a rough start hurts a bit extra.
They were able to handle the Georgia Bulldogs, but that may prove to be one of Vanderbilt's easier SEC games. The Kentucky Wildcats beat the Commodores by 18 and the Rebels backed that up with a 28-point win.
Vandy coach Shea Ralph and her squad were able to get off to a 3-0 conference start last season but finished just 9-7. The Commdores' work will be cut out for them the rest of the way.
In Thursday's game, the Commodores were unable to slow down the Ole Miss guard play.
Senior Rebels star Kennedy Todd-Williams had the best game of her career, leading the blowout with 25 points. She did so on 7-of-13 shooting from the field and an efficient 5-of-7 from beyond the arc. She also had seven assists and six rebounds.
Sira Thienou, a freshman Ole Miss guard, also had one of her better games. She had 16 points on 7-of-10 from the field with four assists and four boards.
Vanderbilt simply didn't have enough firepower to compensate for those performances.
In an encouraging turn of events freshman guard Mikayla Blakes continued her solid play.
Blakes scored 19 points with five rebounds and two assists. The Commodores need to keep her scoring throughout her debut season, so that can be considered a win.
Vanderbilt needs to get back into the win column and the Commodores will face another tall task on Monday when they travel to Baton Rouge to take on the LSU Tigers.
Dylan Sanders graduated from Louisiana State University with a degree from the Manship School of Mass Communication in 2023. He was born in raised in Baton Rouge, LA but has also lived in Buffalo, NY. Though he is a recent graduate, he has been writing about sports since he was in high school, covering different sports from baseball to football. While in college, he wrote for the school paper The Reveille and for 247Sports. He was able cover championships in football, baseball and women's basketball during his time at LSU. He has also spent a few years covering the NFL draft and every day activities of the New Orleans Saints. He is a Senior Writer at Inside the Marlins and will also be found across Sports Illustrated's baseball sites as a contributing writer. You can follow him on Twitter or Instagram @dillysanders