STARKVILLE — The Mississippi State women’s basketball team blocked its way to victory Friday night in its season opener.
The Lady Bulldogs set a new school record with 14 blocked shots and scored the first 16 points en route to a 78-41 victory against Jacksonville State at Humphrey Coliseum.
The victory was the 300th home win in program history. The Lady Bulldogs moved to 22-0 against Ohio Valley Conference foes and 36-2 in home openers. MSU has won 26 straight home openers.
In her MSU debut, freshman Martha Alwal also set a school record with 10 blocked shots. A 6-foot-4 freshman from Worthington, Minn., Alwal had four points, 11 rebounds, and 10 blocked shots.
“I was excited about my game tonight,” Alwal said. “There are lots of things I need to work on the offensive end. I need to take better shots and work on blocking out. However, this was a good start.”
Senior guard Diamber Johnson poured in a career-high with 30 points on 12-of-23 shooting.
A pair of 3-points by newcomer Kendra Grant sparked the game-opening 16-0 run. After the Lady Gamecocks closed within 18-5, the hosts scored the game’s next 10 points.
“Finding a way to win and finding a way to get better,” MSU coach Sharon Fanning-Otis said. “That is what we need to do. We still have to work on penetration and guarding players better. I am very proud. I was pleased that we kept them under 30 percent and shot 47 percent on our offensive end.”
In the opening half, MSU held Jacksonville State to 14.8-percent shooting and took a 35-13 halftime lead.
“This was a good start for this team,” Johnson said. “It is like we have been saying through the preseason, this team has a chance to be special. We have to work hard every day and not go backwards. We did a good job of sharing the basketball tonight and guarded well on the defensive end.”
In the second half, the Lady Bulldogs scored the first eight points to extend the lead to 30. The hosts led by as many as 39 on three occasions in the final half.
MSU hit 31 of 65 from the field (47.7 percent), 5 of 18 from 3-point range (27.8 percent), and 11 of 18 from the foul line (61.1 percent).
Jacksonville State hit 15 of 53 from the field (28.3 percent), 3 of 10 from 3-point range (30.0 percent), and 8 of 18 from the foul line (44.4 percent).
MSU held a 46-32 rebounding advantage. The Lady Bulldogs had 14 assists and 15 turnovers, while the Lady Gamecocks had 13 assists and 26 turnovers.
Porsha Porter added 10 points for MSU.
Jacksonville State received 11 points from Destiny Lane and 10 points from Danielle Vaughn.
MSU will continues its season-opening three-game homestand at 7 p.m. Monday when it plays host to Xavier.
n Ole Miss 68: North Florida 59: At Oxford, Maggie McFerrin hit three 3-pointers and scored a team-high 11 points Friday to lead the Rebels to a victory in the season opener for both teams.
Nikki Byrd had 10 points and Valencia McFarland had nine for Ole Miss.
“I thought we were a little slow to start and we can’t get back in that pattern again,” Ole Miss coach Renee Ladner said. “I think our defense will have to create offense. We let a lot of groups of people play and had a lot of people play today.”
North Florida took a 19-7 lead with 13 minutes, 41 seconds left in the first half. Ole Miss cut the lead to 19-14 on a fast-break layup by McFerrin with 10:54 left in the half.
A 3-pointer by McFerrin tied the game at 20 with 7:08 to play in the half. Byrd hit a fast-break layup right before half to give Ole Miss a 37-29 lead. The Ospreys hit a shot at the buzzer to make it 37-31 at halftime.
In the second half, Ole Miss used a 16-4 run to go up 57-41 on a 3-pointer by Kenyotta Jenkins with 8:10 to play.
Ole Miss shot 41.3 percent (26 of 63), while North Florida shot 46.3 percent (25 of 54). Byrd led Ole Miss with five rebounds, while McFarland ha d five assists.
Ole Miss will play at Lamar at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
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