Freshman Madewell haunts Lady Razorbacks

DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE PRESS SERVICES

OXFORD, Miss. -- Freshman Kayla Madewell of Farmington scored a career-high 19 points to pace Ole Miss to a 78-63 victory over Arkansas on Saturday at Tad Smith Coliseum.
The victory snapped the Lady Rebels' 13-game losing streak in SEC play and continues their perfect record against the Lady Razorbacks in Oxford.
Arkansas (14-13, 4-10) is the 10th seed for the SEC Tournament in Chattanooga, Tenn., and will play Florida at 2:30 p.m. Central on Thursday. Ole Miss (12-15, 1-13) is the 12th seed.
Madewell hit five three-pointers en route to winning both the game and the battle against former high school rival India Lewis of Siloam Springs, who led Arkansas off the bench with 17 points.
"She [Madewell] stepped up and hit four uncontested shots in the first half," Arkansas Coach Gary Blair said. "We were telling our posts that they had a three player that could hit that shot playing down low, but we didn't guard her.
"You're happy to see an Arkansas kid do well because of what she's done for high school basketball in our state, but you hate that it had to be you that she went off on."
Ole Miss began to pull away in the second half.
A Madewell three-pointer put the Lady Rebels ahead 61-49 with 12:42 to play. A Frankie Boyd layup extended the spread to 63-49 before Arkansas jumped into a full-court press. Back-to-back turnovers were converted into layups by Arkansas freshmen Dana Cherry and Lakishia Harper to cut the Ole Miss lead to 63-55 with 10:02 left in the game.
"Those three freshmen were giving it their all today," Blair said. "When freshmen have to play that many minutes, sometimes it doesn't work out. But they kept fighting to the end."
The Lady Razorbacks stayed close until Ole Miss ran off an 8-2 spurt for a 78-63 lead with two minutes to play.
Arkansas shot 50 percent from the field, while Ole Miss made just 36 percent of its field goals. But the Lady Rebels pulled down 25 offensive rebounds and had a 48-34 overall rebounding advantage.
"That was our Achilles' heel," Blair said. "We usually struggle against bigger teams, but there's no excuse for giving up four offensive rebounds to [Becky] Myatt because she's just as tall as we are."
Arkansas stumbled out of the blocks as Ole Miss took a 5-0 lead. Lewis checked into the game at the first media time out and took over the offense. She hit a pair of deep three-pointers to pace an 11-0 run as Arkansas took a 14-10 lead. The Lady Razorbacks extended their lead to 21-14 before Madewell began to shoot the Lady Rebels back into the game.
Madewell hit consecutive three-pointers to pull Ole Miss back within 29-28 with 3:39 left in the first half.
The loss is Arkansas' sixth consecutive and gives the Lady Razorbacks an 0-7 mark on the road in SEC action.
"We've had no answer for the road this year," Blair said. "We're playing a lot of young players a lot of minutes, but that's not the whole deal."

ARKANSAS    M    FG    FT   O-R  A PF PTS
Wright     12   0-1   0-0   0-0  0  1   0
Willits    36  4-13   0-0   0-4  5  2   9
Cherry     17   4-7   2-3   2-6  0  3  10
Bragg      19   0-1   1-2   0-1  0  2   1
Karlin     31  4-10   5-7   4-7  1  0  13
Lewis      30  6-12   0-0   0-3  3  0  17
Anderson    2   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  0   0
Harper     25   4-5   2-2   2-5  1  5  10
Oakley     14   0-0   3-4   1-2  0  3   3
Whitehead  14   0-3   0-0   0-1  1  4   0
Team                        1-5      
Totals    200 22-52 13-18 10-34 11 20  63

PCT. --FG 42.3, FT 72.2. 
3-PT. -- 6-19, 31.6 (Lewis 5-9, Willits 1-5, 
Whitehead 0-3, Karlin 0-1, Harper 0-1). 
BLK -- 2 (Bragg, Harper). 
TO --16 (Karlin 3, Whitehead 3). 
STL -- 5 (Lewis 2, Harper 2, Whitehead).

OLE MISS    M    FG    FT   O-R  A PF PTS
Madewell   27  7-11   0-0   0-5  0  4  19
Murphy     24   3-9   2-2   2-2  1  3   8
Dorsey     29  3-11   4-5   6-9  6  1  10
Myatt      40  6-17   1-2   4-6  7  1  17
Boyd       28  6-14   0-4   3-7  0  3  12
Corbitt    11   0-3   0-0   0-1  3  1   0
Bantz       1   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  0   0
Wysinger   17   0-2   0-0   1-2  0  2   0
Day         8   1-1   0-3   1-3  0  1   2
Moton       1   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  0   0
Henley      6   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  1   0
Howell      1   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  0   0
Kirk        9   3-4   3-3   4-7  1  0  10
Bolden      1   0-0   0-0   0-1  0  0   0
Team                  4-5
Totals    200 29-72 10-19 25-48 18 17  78

PCT. -- FG 40.3, FT 52.6. 
3-PT. -- 10-23, 43.5 (Madewell 5-6, 
Myatt 4-11, Kirk 1-1, Dorsey 0-2, Corbitt 0-2, Murphy 0-1). 
BLK -- 1 (Boyd). TO -- 10 (Boyd 3). 
STL -- 4 (Dorsey 2, Madewell, Boyd).

Halftime -- Ole Miss 39, Arkansas 36.
Officials -- Morningstar, Cloud, Morris.
Attendance -- 701.

This article was published on Monday, February 28, 2000

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