Vandy women’s basketball came into Sunday afternoon’s showdown against Ole Miss Rebels looking for revenge after the Rebels decisively beat the Commodores in Oxford 87-59 on January 9. Unfortunately, this one looked more like a replay than a true rematch with Vandy getting embarrassed on their home court 76-61.

This game showed many parallels to their previous matchup. As in Oxford, the Rebels’ defense stifled Vandy early. The Commodores couldn’t get anything going as they shot just 23% in the first quarter. After scoring 53 points against Florida, freshman Mikayla Blakes had a rough start picking up her 3rd foul early in the second quarter. Blakes sat the rest of the half with just 3 points and 4 turnovers.

Vandy went into halftime down 32-21, with the Commodores shooting just 28% and 1-7 (14%) from three. As in their first matchup with the Rebels, turnovers were a huge problem once again for Vandy. The Commodores had 10 in the first half.

Although Vanderbilt shot significantly better in the second half, they could never chip away at the lead. Ole Miss expanded the margin to 57-41 at the end of the third quarter. The Commodores simply couldn’t get stops. While the Rebels are not a particularly tall team, their speed, strength, and length gave Vandy problems once again.

The story of this game was Ole Miss getting whatever they wanted in the paint – outscoring the Commodores 54-32 on paint points. The Rebels finished 19-23 on layups, which came in a variety of ways. Vandy gave them 21 points from their 18 turnovers. Ole Miss also scored another 21 points off 13 offensive rebounds. The Rebels sliced through the paint with short jumpers, post-ups, back-cuts, inbounds plays – in short, they had their way down low.

Vandy couldn’t seem to do anything to slow down the Rebels. Coach Shea Ralph even switched to a zone – not her preferred defense – but it didn’t matter. The Rebels continued to bully the Commodores down low and would lead by as much as 20 points in 4th quarter.

With the win, Ole Miss improves to 15-6 and 6-3 in the conference. The Rebels finished the game shooting 54% from the field. They only shot 2-12 from three, but with the ease they scored inside it didn’t matter. The Rebels outrebounded the Commodores 32-23 and finished with 15 assists and 14 turnovers.

Ole Miss forward Starr Jacobs led the Rebels with 24 points and 10 rebounds, shooting an almost flawless 12-13 from the floor. Madison Scott finished with 16 points, showing 7-11 from the field. The Rebels’ leading scorer, Sira Thienou, picked up three early fouls like Mikayla Blakes and was a non-factor for most of the game. She finished with 6 points.

Vandy drops to 18-5, and 5-3 in the conference. They shot 47% from the field for the game, but just 2-9 from three. The Commodores finished with just 8 assists and 18 turnovers.

Vandy was led by Khamil Pierre who rebounded from a poor offensive game against Florida Thursday. Pierre had 24 points, 7 rebounds, and shot 11-18 from the floor.

Blakes came back to earth some after her record setting performance. She had 13 points in the second half to bring her total to 16 for the game. She also struggled taking care of the ball with 6 turnovers. Still, it’s very telling of how good she is when 16 points is considered an “off” game.

Iyanna Moore was the only other Commodore in double figures with 10 points, but she struggled with her shot. She finished shooting just 3-13 from the floor.

The loss caps a disappointing weekend for Vanderbilt basketball, with the men’s team getting blown out 97-67 to Oklahoma in Norman Saturday. It appears each team’s stay in the top 25 will be a short one, and now both programs will have to learn a humbling lesson on handling success.

Things don’t get any easier for the Vanderbilt women. The next game is against #5 Texas in Austin for a late 8:00 contest Thursday.