Ole Miss women's basketball's March Madness run ends with Sweet 16 loss to Louisville

SEATTLE — Defense, physicality and grit brought Ole Miss women’s basketball to its first March Madness Sweet 16 since 2007.

Efficiency and quickness ‒ combined with that same defensive tenacity ‒ will send the Rebels home.

Fifth-seeded Louisville ended an outstanding Ole Miss season, 72-62, on Friday night at Climate Pledge Arena.

Hailey Van Lith posted 21 points to lead a Cardinals offense that pushed the ball up the floor at every opportunity early to build a five-point halftime lead.

From there, Louisville (26-11) leaned on its own stout defense, holding the eighth-seeded Rebels (25-9) without a field goal for a third-quarter stretch lasting 7:11 and extending the lead to 10. Ole Miss, never a team with much offensive firepower, briefly cut the deficit to five points in the fourth quarter, but never fully recovered. The Cardinals shot 45.8% – not an overwhelming output, but comfortably the best mark by any of the Rebels' NCAA Tournament foes.

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Cardinals run out to first-half lead

The game began with the kind of tempo Ole Miss thrives on.

The Rebels locked up the Cardinals in the half-court game and used missed Louisville shots to spring their own fast-break opportunities. As a result, the Cardinals missed six of their first seven shots, and Ole Miss jumped out to a quick 9-3 lead.

Then that dynamic flipped. Louisville rushed up the floor whenever possible, preventing the Rebels from setting the defense that had stymied excellent Gonzaga and Stanford offenses. After the positive Ole Miss start, the Cardinals outscored the Rebels 31-20 to take a 34-29 lead into the locker room.

The uncharacteristic first half set the tone for the rest of the game.

Louisville shuts down Ole Miss forwards

Ole Miss never led in the second half, in part because Louisville made it borderline impossible for the Rebels to get anything in the paint.

The Rebels’ guard trio of Angel Baker, Marquesha Davis and Myah Taylor combined for 39 points – a mark that would usually be good enough to carry Ole Miss to a victory.

But, with the interior clogged, Ole Miss got almost nothing from its forwards.

Madison Scott, who the Rebels depend on for nearly 12 points per game, was held to four points on the night. The duo of Tyia Singleton and Rita Igbokwe combined for just three.

With the Cardinals’ offense humming at a rate much more efficient than most of Ole Miss’ opponents this season, the math just didn’t add up for the Rebels.

David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Ole Miss women's basketball's season ends with Sweet 16 loss to Louisville