If Vic Schaefer was curious to see how his Mississippi State University women’s basketball team handled a little success, he must be itching to find out how his team is going to regroup from one of its most disappointing efforts of the season.
On Thursday in Oxford, MSU saw its two-game winning streak snapped in a 65-51 loss to the University of Mississippi. According to Schaefer, the Rebels “outcoached, outplayed, and outhustled” the Bulldogs in the second half en route to a 38-16 turnaround. The loss also ended MSU’s six-game winning streak in the series.
At 12:30 p.m. today (SportSouth), MSU (11-13, 3-8 Southeastern Conference) will try to bounce back when it plays host to LSU (14-10, 5-6) at Humphrey Coliseum.
“We have a little success, we feel good about ourselves, and I saw it coming,” Schaefer said of the effort against Ole Miss. At the same time, he said it was a challenge to get the Bulldogs back on track once things started to wrong. MSU shot 7 of 29 (24.1 percent) from the field in the second half after going 14 of 29 (48.3) and looked comfortable and in control in the first half.
“I told them for two days in practice they looked satisfied,” Schaefer said. “It is an approach. It is a work ethic, and it is an approach you have to have every game. Every game is different and it is a new approach that has to be approached in the same workmanlike manner.”
Schaefer said he didn’t like his team’s effort or its intensity against Ole Miss. He said his team didn’t resemble the one that had won three of its past four games entering its second game against Ole Miss. It certainly didn’t look anything like the one that outscored the Rebels 46-25 in the second half and went on to a 72-57 victory on Jan. 27 in Starkville.
“They looked so tired,” Schaefer said of his team, which was coming off a 61-56 victory Sunday at the University of Missouri. “They hadn’t looked that tired in a month of Sundays They looked like they were just out of it physically and mentally.”
Schaefer has said all season, though, that ups and downs are going to happen with a young, inexperienced team. With MSU not shooting well and committing 11 of its 19 turnovers in the second half against Ole Miss, things unraveled and didn’t begin to come back together until the final four minutes.
MSU likely will see another inspired effort from an opponent today. LSU is coming off a 62-54 victory against then-No. 9 University of Georgia on Sunday in Baton Rouge, La. LSU defeated MSU 62-42 on Jan. 13 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Junior Theresa Plaisance (17.8 points per game) is the only player in the league in the top five in scoring, rebounding, blocked shots, field goal percentage, and free throw percentage. Danielle Ballard (12.4 ppg.) is second among freshmen in the league in scoring, while senior guard Adrienne Webb (13.8 ppg.) had a career-high 28 points against the Bulldogs in the first meeting.
LSU has five players 6-foot-1 or taller and is one of the biggest teams in the SEC.
MSU will try to combat LSU’s size inside with sophomore center Martha Alwal (12.5 ppg.), who leads the league in rebounding (10.0).
Schaefer hopes Alwal and the Bulldogs will be ready to accept the challenge.
“All I know is how they responded after Tennessee beat us and they came back to beat Arkansas,” Schaefer said. “After Texas A&M beat us, they came back to beat Ole Miss. Does that mean they are going to come back and play great against LSU? No. But those are two instances we have responded after a disappointing loss. Last night’s loss was a little different because we we feel like we should have beat that team. We had an eight-point lead at halftime, but I never felt like we were in total control. But being up eight on the road at halftime we felt good about things. But our energy and intensity level in the second half was totally different.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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