OXFORD — Playing in front of more than 8,000 school children in a women’s basketball matinee on Tuesday, Ole Miss left Southern Miss feeling a bit belittled.

Madinah Muhammad and Alissa Alston scored 19 points apiece, and Ole Miss used a stifling defensive effort in the first half to beat the Golden Eagles 68-59 on Kids Day in Oxford.

Southern Miss was just 9-for-29 shooting from the field (31 percent) in the first half, and three of its starters did not score a point until the third quarter.

“If our two leading scorers, Shonte Hailes and Jayla King, don’t get a bucket, it’s going to be hard to win a half or even a quarter.” Southern Miss coach Joye Lee-McNelis said.

Ole Miss (9-1) closed out a four-game homestand by winning its seventh game in a row. It will head to the West Coast for its next two games, at No. 9 Oregon on Sunday and at Portland State next Tuesday.

The winning streak is Ole Miss’ longest since another seven-gamer in the 2013-14 season. It is 9-1 for the first time since 2005-06.

Five of Ole Miss’ wins have come against teams in the top 150 of the NCAA’s RPI rankings.

“We haven’t played cupcakes,” Ole Miss coach Matt Insell said. “It’d be easy to play somebody and win by 70 points like we’ve done in the past. No, we’ve been challenged and we’ve had some adversity, and we’ve had to step up every time and I feel like we will.”

Ole Miss never trailed against Southern Miss (6-3) after Alston hit two free throws to give it a 4-2 lead with 7:42 left in the first quarter. Ole Miss’ lead grew to 13 points by halftime.

Despite struggling in the first half, Southern Miss fought back in the second. The Golden Eagles scored on three of the first four possessions and outscored Ole Miss 23-22 in the third quarter and 19-14 in the fourth.

King bounced back from her scoreless first half to finish with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Megan Brown also scored 12 points, while Hailes had seven points and eight assists.

The Lady Eagles continued the pressure in the fourth with full court pressure, holding the Rebels without a field goal for the last 9 1/2 minutes. A layup by King cut what had been a 16-point deficit at one point to six, 59-53, with 3:26 left in the game.

That was as close as Southern Miss got, though. The Rebels withstood the storm by shooting 12-of-16 from the free throw line.

“We were frustrated by how we played in the first half, but I can’t say enough about how we fought back,” McNelis said. “We remained composed, and it was hard to do because it was so hard to hear in here. Kyle Felton did a good job on their bigs and I’m very proud of her. This game gives us a chance to grow as a team and an opportunity to build team chemistry. That helps us in many ways.”

Ole Miss set a women’s basketball attendance record with 8,229 fans on Tuesday. The large crowd was due to the school’s annual Kids Day, when area schools are provided with tickets for their students to attend.

“I want to thank the communities that allowed their students to get out of school today to come here and watch us play, and I hope these young children will leave here, go home and tell mom and dad that they want to come back,” Insell said.