After a depressing four-game skid at the end of their regular season, Ole Miss finally gave the Rebel Nation a win right when it mattered the most.
Be it their familiarity with the Auburn squad from their previous game, or their frustration after the consecutive losses, but the Rebels put the Tigers through the wringer early on and came out winning in a dominant 73-57 game.
Ole Miss crushes Day 2 of the SEC Tournament
It was a total start-to-finish demolition from Ole Miss as they did not trail behind Auburn even once on Thursday night.
Christeen Iwuala showed what it means to come in clutch in the games that count the most as she finished her night with 18 points and a field-leading nine rebounds. What's even more impressive of her was that she made all eight of her shot attempts in a pressure cooker postseason atmosphere.
While Iwuala managed both sides of the ball, Cotie McMahon and Latasha Lattimore held down the offense with 13 and 12 points, respectively.
With their performance Thursday night, Coach Yo's squad proved jsut how much they rpacticed during the single-bye they got to fix the one fatal flaw that was anchoring them down for the last four games against SEC heavyweights.
Getting distracted from their defensive identity was proving to be a serious problem for the Rebs entering the postseason. While its chinks in their armor might not showup in a game that they dominated through and through, Ole Miss still did a decent job in tightening up their defense during their First Round bye.
Now, the real test starts as they prepare to take on the higher seeding SEC heavyweights, and their recent 4-game skid hasn't proved quite assuring for the upcoming games.
That said, they have an upper hand against their next opponents Vanderbilt with the same familiarity and a dominating 83-75 regular season win like they had against Auburn.
Ole Miss takes on Vanderbilt on March 6.