One star player on the bench, a two-point season-ending defeat, and a head coach ready to blame the officials—the Ole Miss Rebels’ March Madness exit was anything but quiet. Yolett McPhee-McCuin’s team faced a 63-65 tightrope defeat in the second-round March Madness game after being shorthanded by one of her star players, and the former immediately shifted the blame to officiating.

Ole Miss senior Cotie McMahon, who’s the team’s scoring leader this season, was limited to just 21 minutes of game time against Minnesota courtesy of her foul struggles right after tipoff. McMahon received two in the first quarter alone, forcing Ole Miss’s head coach to sub her out. The second quarter went pretty well for McMahon, but she was called again for a violation with 2:30 left in the third and picked up two more on the offensive end in the fourth quarter.

And this flurry of fouls against her star player was enough for McPhee-McCuin to call out the officiating in the game. “I was in the locker room just thinking about other star players on teams,” McPhee-McCuin lashed out at the press conference. “I’ve just never seen them fouled out in a March Madness game. I just haven’t. Paige, Caitlin, I mean, I don’t want to call the current ones because then someone will say I’m tampering or something like that. I just haven’t seen the best players get fouled out. ”

McMahon specifically highlighted that McMahon’s last foul that was for an offensive charge near the opposition court. “And from my point of view, the last call was incorrect. We watched it 1500 times. I don’t think that’s why we lost the game. And I just know that Cotie is the leading scorer, (SEC) Newcomer of the Year, all of the things, and she plays 20 minutes, and it’s disappointing.”

“Officiating as a whole really needs to be looked at. I really do. I’m not just talking about this game. Something has to be done. It has to be better,” McPhee-McCuin added further,” she added further.

The Ole Miss head coach’s frustration was firmly visible in her tone at the press conference. Statistically, her assessment makes sense. Top players like Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers haven’t been fouled out ever in their collegiate careers. And the strictness of officiating in the current era might have changed since then. But it’s also a fact that there’s a major contrast between Bueckers and Clark’s situations and McMahon’s.

For instance, Bueckers has never been undisciplined with fouls across her UConn stints. Her foul average never exceeded 1.6 in any season, while Clark averaged 2.2. On the other hand, McMahon has reached five fouls three times in this season alone. And it makes sense, given that she’s Ole Miss’s most important offensive player: she does have to make that tad extra effort with physicality at times, leaving her in the crosshairs of the officials.

It’s only unfortunate for her and Yolett McPhee-McCuin that in a crucial game like this, the call didn’t go their way, which cost them their March Madness run. But this isn’t the first time McPhee-McCuin has expressed her disappointment with such tightrope officiating this season.

Earlier in the year, she called out the SEC officiating, stating they were ‘robbed’ of a win in a 63-64 reckoning against Alabama. Even then, McMahon was at the center of debate. She received a foul during an offensive sequence in the dying minutes of the game, which could have sealed the deal for McPhee-McCuin’s team, as the Rebels eventually lost.

And on Sunday, it felt like the iteration of the same story. McMahon’s absence in the fourth quarter of the game severely hampered Ole Miss’ stay. The Rebels gave away a total of 18 fouls in the game, giving away 14 free throw points to the Gophers. The offense looked fragile, managing just four points after she left the court with 4:22 minutes left on the clock. On the other hand, Minnesota capitalized with Amaya Battle making a 13-foot jumper to win the game for her team, despite the Rebels having a five-point lead when McMahon left the court.

Cotie McMahon’s Prolonged Absence Forces Yolett McPhee-McCuin to Search for Options

McMahon did make good use of her 21-minute stay on the court, recording 15 points and 4 assists. But in a high-stakes game like this, Ole Miss simply required much more than that from their talisman. Amid such a situation, it was Sira Thienou who carried the offense on her shoulders in the majority of the game.

Thienou chipped in with 18 points, with 7 of 18 from the field. Additionally, she also contributed impressively to the glass with 5 rebounds. She made some bad shooting calls during the game and gave away 4 fouls. As a sophomore, Yolett McPhee-McCuin believes Thienou will improve with experience.

“Cotie was out of the game. It was Sira. She had made some big shots, and that’s just an environment. That’s something she has to learn from. She’s a sophomore. She’ll be better,” the Ole Miss head coach said. As the box score suggests, Thienou’s performance was the only silver lining from this controversial season-ending loss for Ole Miss.

McMahon’s final game for Ole Miss didn’t turn out as expected, as the persistent nemesis scarred her once again. With her departure, the Rebels will have to find a top-notch scorer. And with the early signs Sira Thienou has showcased, it won’t be surprising if McPhee-McCuin rests her faith on her.

With this defeat, a promising season comes to an end for the Rebels. They will have to go to the drawing board for rebuilding, as several seniors are leaving the program ahead of the next season. Minnesota will move to the next round of March Madness.