By The Associated Press
ATHENS, Ga. — In a matchup of two very good defensive teams, Georgia’s was just a little bit better than Mississippi State’s to pull off the upset victory.
Shacobia Barbee had 17 points and 11 rebounds to help the Lady Bulldogs top the No. 10 team in the country 47-43 on Thursday night.
It was a particularly big win for Georgia (14-5, 4-2) as the team didn’t get off to a good start in league play and played poorly in a 64-50 loss last Sunday against Alabama, the only conference game it has played thus far against an unranked team.
“If we come out here and feel sorry for ourselves, Mississippi State could put 75 or 80 on us,” Georgia coach Joni Taylor said. “I knew if we played well and defended and we knew they were going to defend us, that it was going to be a game in the 40s.
“Our key was to make them play a halfcourt game. They score off defensive pressure and lead the league in turnovers with 24 or 25 a game. We knew we had to take care of the ball and not give them easy buckets in transition and force them to play a halfcourt game.”
With both teams specializing on defense, it wasn’t expected to be a high-scoring affair, and nobody was terribly surprised neither team managed to hit the 50-point mark.
Sophomore Victoria Vivians, the SEC’s leading scorer, led Mississippi State (17-3, 4-2) with 20 points. No other player for Mississippi State scored more than five points besides sophomore point guard Morgan William, who finished with seven points.
“They really did a great job defending us,” Mississippi State coach Vic Shaefer said of Georgia. “We probably set the game back 30 years in the first half offensively. I was proud of our kids for hanging in there and continuing to compete.”
Although Mississippi State was the highest-ranked team Georgia (14-5, 2-4) has bested this season, Barbee felt she and her teammates have played better. The Lady Bulldogs defeated then-No. 21 Seton Hall 70-52 on Dec. 6 and defeated then-No. 20 Florida 71-61 on Jan. 14.
“I think Seton Hall was one of our biggest wins because we played as a team that entire game and everyone’s offense was clicking,” Barbee said. “Tonight was a very big win, but we’ve got to do better on offense.
Our defense looked good and our transition game was good, but our offense in the halfcourt needs to click, because people are going to stop letting us run in transition and that’s something we need to focus on.”
The two teams were tied 9-9 at the end of the first quarter and Georgia outscored Mississippi State 8-5 in the second quarter to take a 17-14 halftime lead.
“We probably set the game back 30 years in the first half offensively.” Shaefer said.
n Ole Miss 73, Kentucky 65: At Oxford, Mississippi’s past two weeks had basically been a disaster.
The Rebels were getting blown out repeatedly and four straight losses threatened to bury the program in the Southeastern Conference standings before the season got started.
But Ole Miss bounced back in a big way against No. 9 Kentucky. The Rebels led for nearly the entire game and held off a final Kentucky charge in the fourth quarter.
“What a great win for our program,” Ole Miss coach Matt Insell said. “To get a win over a top 10 team just speaks volumes about where we’re going with the process of what we’re doing with this program.”
Shequila Joseph tied a career-high with 21 points while Shandricka Sessom and A’Queen Hayes added 14 each. The Rebels won for the first time since a Jan. 3 against Vanderbilt.
Ole Miss (10-9, 2-4 Southeastern Conference) made 10 3-pointers and forced 21 Kentucky turnovers.
Joseph came into the game averaging just 5.7 points per game, but was hot from the opening tip. She was 8 of 12 from the field and 5 of 7 from 3-point range.
“It’s probably her best night since she’s been at Ole Miss,” Insell said.
Kentucky (14-3, 3-3) trailed 59-47 early in the fourth quarter, but cut the advantage to 61-57 with 3:46 remaining. Ole Miss’ Sessom responded by hitting a layup while being fouled and then made the free throw to give the Rebels a 64-57 advantage that proved too much for the Wildcats to overcome.
“Time was on our side,” Joseph said. “We just had to take our time and make the easy shots.”
Kentucky has lost two of its last three. Makayla Epps led the Wildcats with 22 points, but the Wildcats never looked comfortable against the Ole Miss defense.
“We disrupted Kentucky all night,” Insell said. “They’re a great basketball team … but I know this, we did a great job disrupting them, getting them out of their sets and making them play one-on-one basketball.
Ole Miss controlled the game from the outset, taking the lead for good early in the first quarter when Bretta Hart hit a layup to make it 8-7.
Kentucky kept it close throughout the first half, but could never quite overtake the Rebels, who hit several timely 3-pointers to keep the Wildcats behind. Ole Miss led 35-31 at halftime.
It was an unexpected victory for Ole Miss, which had lost four straight and was getting crushed in the process. They were coming off a 79-51 loss to No. 10 Mississippi State on Monday and had lost all four games by at least 19 points.
But the Rebels gained confidence from the Joseph’s hot shooting and Kentucky’s final rally fell short.
“I thought (Ole Miss) came out with much more passion and intensity,” Kentucky coach Matthew Mitchell said. “I’m sure they felt like their backs were against the wall after getting beat so bad on Monday night. They came out swinging and we didn’t handle it very well.
“Give them all the credit, they played great.”
It was the first win for Ole Miss in its new basketball home called The Pavilion. The Rebels moved into the building earlier this month.
n South Carolina 74, Auburn 58: At Auburn, Alabama, Alaina Coates scored 17 points and had 10 rebounds to lead No. 2 South Carolina to a win.
The Gamecocks (18-0, 6-0 Southeastern Conference) weathered an early shooting drought and wound up with a lopsided win after surviving a 59-58 scare against Texas A&M.
The Tigers (12-7, 2-4) struggled after briefly taking a five-point lead in the first half with a 12-0 run.
Katie Frerking led Auburn with 17 points.
n Texas A&M 81, Missouri 77: At College Station, Texas, Chelsea Jennings scored 22 points — one of three Texas A&M players to score 20-plus — and the Aggies held off Missouri in overtime.
With under a minute left in overtime, Texas A&M worked the clock down but Courtney Walker missed a jumper. Jennings grabbed the offensive rebound, was fouled and made both free throws with 28.8 seconds left for a 78-75 lead.
Jordan Frericks made a nice backdoor cut on an inbound pass and hit the layup to cut it to 78-77 with 27 seconds left. Texas A&M broke the press, and Walker was fouled with 12.1 seconds left and made both free throws for a three-point lead.
Texas A&M opted to foul with five seconds left. Lindsey Cunningham missed both free throws and the Aggies secured the rebound.
Walker and Jordan Jones each scored 20 points for Texas A&M (14-5, 4-2 SEC). Walker made three free throws with eight seconds left in regulation to force overtime.
Frericks led Missouri (15-4, 2-4) with 23 points and 12 rebounds. Cierra Porter added 20 and 10.
n Tennessee 58, Vanderbilt 49: At Knoxville, Tennessee, Te’a Cooper scored 13 points and sparked a critical third-quarter run to end her personal slump Thursday as Tennessee defeated Vanderbilt and continued its home domination of this series.
Vanderbilt rallied from a 14-point deficit and only trailed 52-49 when it had the ball on two separate occasions in the final minute, but the Commodores turned the ball over both times. Tennessee sealed the victory by going 6 of 6 on free throws in the final 16 seconds.
The Commodores (13-5, 2-3 SEC) have never beaten the Lady Volunteers at Knoxville in 31 attempts. Tennessee’s latest victory over its in-state rival enabled the Lady Vols (12-6, 3-2) to avoid their first three-game losing streak since 1986.
Tennessee was clinging to a 30-28 lead in the third quarter when Cooper scored her team’s first nine points in a 14-2 spurt that gave the Lady Vols a double-digit advantage.
n Florida 80, Alabama 72: At Gainesville, Florida, Eleanna Christinaki scored 16 points to help No. 22 Florida over Alabama.
Christinaki was 5 of 9 from the floor and 6 of 7 from the line for the Gators (16-3, 4-2 SEC). Ronni Williams was 6 of 9 for 13 points and Simone Westbrook scored 11 points as Florida shot over 54 percent and won the rebound battle 40-25.
Alabama (13-6, 2-4 SEC) was led by Meoshonti Knight with a career-high 23 points and six steals — which matches another career mark. Hannah Cook scored 16 points, Shaquera Wade had 13 and Quanetria Bolton added 11.
Florida led 46-31 at intermission, but Alabama outscored the Gators 30-15 in the third to tie at 61 entering the fourth.
n Arkansas 48, LSU 44: At Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Jessica Jackson and Devin Cosper scored in double figures to lead Arkansas (9-10, 4-2) to its third straight win.
Jackson finished with 15 points, her 16th double-digit effort. Cosper added 12 scoring in double figures for the 10th time as a Razorback.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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