Ole Miss women visit Baylor for the March Madness meeting that eluded them in 2022

By Canadian Press on March 22, 2025.

WACO, Texas (AP) — Mississippi visits Baylor on Sunday with a spot in the Sweet 16 of the women’s NCAA Tournament on the line.

This is the matchup the Rebels missed out on three years ago with a first-round loss in Waco that was the first-ever tournament victory for South Dakota.

The disappointment was even deeper in 2022 for the Bears, who had a 12-year run of Sweet 16 appearances stopped by the 10th-seeded Coyotes in the second round in coach Nicki Collen’s first season as Baylor coach.

Now, the No. 4 seed Bears (28-7) are trying to turn their relatively new home court (Foster Pavilion) into the same Sweet 16 springboard their old one (Ferrell Center) was before the South Dakota stunner.

“We’ve had a lot of new experiences and opportunities, so really we’re making history for the first time here,” point guard Jada Walker said of the cozy 7,500-seat arena near the Brazos River. “For our seniors, we want to end our season right in this new home court and for the young ones, they get to continue that legacy, trying to keep hosting and just make Foster a winning place to be, just like Ferrell was.”

The fifth-seeded Rebels (21-10), meanwhile, will take a been-there-done-that approach into another hostile environment after opening the tournament at Notre Dame and Stanford the past two years. Not to mention places such as LSU, where Ole Miss won its regular-season finale, in the rough-and-tumble Southeastern Conference.

“We’ve been preparing since the first game of the season in Paris,” guard KK Deans said, referring to a 68-66 loss to JuJu Watkins and Southern California. “A lot of road games, a lot of crowds. So this is nothing new to us.”

The year after her team fell flat on Baylor’s former home court in Waco, coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin led Ole Miss to the 2023 Sweet 16 by winning at Stanford. The Rebels couldn’t repeat the feat at Notre Dame last year.

Collen’s redemption came last season, when Baylor won at Virginia Tech, a 2023 Final Four team, for her first Sweet 16 since replacing Kim Mulkey, who won three national championships with the Bears.

Both coaches are more interested in the next chapter than any old ones, particularly after the Rebels erased the memory of 2022 with a dominant 83-65 first-round win over 12th-seeded Ball State.

“We have a lot of experience. And this is just, to me, another game,” McPhee-McCuin said. “I think the pressure’s on Baylor. I don’t think the pressure’s on us. They’re at home. As far as we’re concerned, we’re just coming out and trying to execute our game plan as best as we know — and can.”

Collen alluded to that pressure after the Bears were sluggish early in a 73-60 victory over 13th-seeded Grand Canyon, which had a 30-game winning streak but was making its first NCAA appearance.

At least the Bears don’t have to worry about the Cinderella factor. The Rebels had the resume to host the early rounds, but settled for their highest seeding since 1994. Baylor is just a 2 1/2-point favorite, according to BetMGM.

“I know when I looked at the top 68 and we were 14 and they were 17, doesn’t seem like we should probably be playing each other,” Collen said. “But I think you’re going to get a really elite matchup, really athletic Ole Miss team.”

Inside story

Both teams rode their dominance around the basket to the first-round victories.

The Bears kept getting the ball to Aaronette Vonleh, and the 6-foot-3 post had 25 points and 11 rebounds. The Rebels had a huge rebounding edge, as shown in a pair of double-doubles with Starr Jacobs (18 points and 11 rebounds) and Kennedy Todd-Williams (15 and 11).

“If you asked me that question first in every game, I would tell you it’s the most important thing in every game we play,” Collen said when asked about rebounding. “It doesn’t matter who we’re playing.”

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AP March Madness coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

Schuyler Dixon, The Associated Press

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