This Nov. 23, 2014, photo proved by The University of Mississippi Athletics Department shows Mississippi women's basketball coach Matt Insell, right and his father, Middle Tennessee State women's basketball coach Rick Insell, before their college basketball game in Oxford, Miss. The two coaches squared off in the first ever meeting between a father and son head coaches in NCAA Division 1 women's basketball history. (AP Photo/The University of Mississippi Athletics Department, Joshua McCoy) (The Associated Press)
Rick Insell won family bragging rights in the first matchup between father and son coaches in Division I women's basketball history Sunday.
The elder Insell's Middle Tennessee State team won 71-65, handing Matt Insell's Mississippi squad its first loss of the season.
"I'm proud of my team," Rick Insell said. "This was a team win. I really didn't give much thought to the fact Matt was coaching the other team. Once the game started he was coaching his team and I was coaching mine. It was a special day, though, because all my family and friends that were here. This was a good win for our team on the road against a good basketball team in Ole Miss."
The pair shared a pregame hug and when both met in the locker room hallway before the game the elder Insell helped the younger fix his tie. The two have met a few times before when Matt was an assistant at Kentucky, but this was the first time they had squared off as head coaches.
"My focus was on our basketball team the whole day," said the younger Insell, who is in his second year at Mississippi.
Both schools said it was the first game in D-I women's basketball in which the head coaches were father and son.
With the game tied at 27, Middle Tennessee scored seven straight and led 36-31 at the half. The Blue Raiders extended the advantage to 49-36 before Ole Miss rallied to get within two with 9:29 left. That's as close as the Rebels could get.
Cheyenne Parker had 25 points and 10 rebounds to lead Middle Tennessee State (2-2).
"I'm really happy with the progression we have made with a young team," Matt Insell said. "We just played a really good basketball team. All credit to them. The big kid they have inside is as good as any kid we will play all year. I knew she was good. This was her first game back. If she had played the other three, they would probably be 3-0 instead of 1-2 coming in here."
Erika Sisk scored a season-high 20 points to lead Ole Miss (3-1), which had won the previous seven meetings between the schools at home.
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