STARKVILLE — It’s time for the Mississippi State women’s basketball team to get back to work.
There won’t be any more talk of season-opening winning streaks or best starts to a campaign. Those storylines vanished Monday night when No. 5 South Carolina defeated No. 4 MSU 64-61 at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, South Carolina.
MSU (20-1, 6-1 Southeastern Conference) took Tuesday off and used Wednesday as a shooting day to catch its breath prior to the next part of the SEC marathon. The second half of the 16-game league schedule will kick off at 3 p.m. Sunday when MSU plays host to Texas A&M at Humphrey Coliseum.
The game will be the latest installment of MSU coach Vic Schaefer vs. his former boss, Gary Blair. The men worked together at Arkansas and at Texas A&M, and played pivotal roles in helping the Aggies win a national title in 2011.
This season, MSU and Texas A&M, which was ranked in The Associated Press Top 25 last week, are in the running to land two of the top four seeds in the SEC tournament. Texas A&M, which also had a bye Thursday, will come to Starkville with a 15-5 record and a 5-2 mark in the SEC.
“We have a heck of a basketball team coming Sunday,” Schaefer said. “They have a tremendous coach who has been in the game for a long time and has done so much for our game. (Texas A&M) is a team that, over the years, has been really hard for us to deal with. A lot of that has to do with not only their players but the preparation. We are expecting to have a great week. Our kids have had a couple of days to regroup. We needed this off week. It comes at a great time.”
Schaefer said he reviewed game film of the loss to South Carolina. He said Thursday he hadn’t seen his players until earlier that day, so everyone hadn’t gathered to watch a replay of the game. He said the Bulldogs would examine their defense and the shortcomings that led to South Carolina getting open for two key 3-pointers that helped it take the lead in the third quarter. Still, MSU regrouped to re-take the lead in the quarter before South Carolina grabbed it back prior to the start of the fourth quarter.
The final 10 minutes were back and forth as MSU had numerous chances down the stretch to re-take the lead. Despite the missed opportunities, Schaefer feels the Bulldogs did a lot of good things on offense.
“We did some really good half-court stuff and didn’t turn the ball over,” Schaefer said. “We will look at the first five minutes of the third quarter where we kind of got punched. Typically, we were doing the punching, but we weren’t real focused. We had some lapses with our key kids and they know that. We have to make those adjustments and corrections, and then we will look at some stuff on Texas A&M.”
Schaefer said he doesn’t anticipate anyone on his staff or any of his players suffering prolonged effects from the first loss of the season. He said he didn’t have any “visions of grandeur” about going undefeated this season. Still, he is focused on fixing what needs to be fixed so the Bulldogs can get back on track for what figures to be a challenging run to the end of the regular season.
“The good news is that we were right there and had a chance to win the game,” Schaefer said. “We didn’t execute and didn’t make one more play. You walk out of there and wake up every day realizing you have a pretty good basketball team. When we play like we played the other night, you are going to have a chance to win them all. The key for me is trying to get your kids to do that every day. I think, for this team, South Carolina had their interest. I know that Texas A&M will have their interest and we will have a good week and get ready to go.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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