Ole Miss Basketball: Lady Rebels down 1 seed Stanford, advance to Sweet 16

The women’s Ole Miss basketball team upset the top-seeded Stanford Cardinal Sunday night to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2007.

The Stanford women’s basketball team hadn’t missed the Sweet 16 round in 16 years, the last time being in 2007. That was coincidentally the last time Ole Miss women’s basketball made the Sweet 16.

The Ole Miss Rebels entered Sunday night’s game against Stanford 12.5 point underdogs.  ESPN’s win probability chart gave the Cardinal a 74.3% chance to win the game. None of that mattered when the clock hit all zeros.

Ole Miss pretty much dominated the entire game. While Stanford pulled the game to a tie with 1:16 left to go, Ole Miss would capitalize on turnovers and would go on to win 54-49. This will be only the fifth time since 1994 that a number one seed failed to make the Sweet 16 in the women’s tournament.

Coach Yo won her first-ever NCAA tournament game last Friday night when the Rebels beat Gonzaga in blowout fashion 71-48 in the first round of the tournament. This was a statement win and Ole Miss officially put the women’s college basketball world on notice.

After a statement win in the first round, the Rebels would follow that up with one of the biggest upsets in program history when they toppled the top-seeded Stanford, a team that was considered by many as arguably the second-best team in the country this year behind only South Carolina.

Stanford was ranked in the top five all season, never dropping lower than five, and they spent the majority of the season ranked number two overall. A few late losses on the season led to them falling a few spots, but they were very much in the conversation as one of the best teams in the country all year.

In an interview with ESPN after the big win, Coach Yo stated: “I wasn’t Ole Miss’ first choice, but I was the right one. And I was naive enough to think that I could do it.” Coach Yo and the women’s Ole Miss basketball squad have definitely exceeded expectations.

The Rebels will now await the winner of number four seed Louisville and number five seed Texas on Monday night to see which opponent they will face in the next round.