STARKVILLE — Jessika Carter won’t know until Monday night whether she has played her final game at Humphrey Coliseum. But if she has, Mississippi State’s star center left everything on the court and nothing to chance.
Locked in a battle all afternoon long with Texas Christian’s own star post player, Sedona Prince, Carter led the Bulldogs with 17 points and eight rebounds as No. 2 seed MSU used a strong late push to defeat the Horned Frogs 68-61 in the second round of the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament.
“It was a fun game today playing against someone like that,” Carter said. “I haven’t really played against anyone her size and her length this whole season. Just having that matchup, it prepares me for the pros. … As far as finishing the game, I feel like I just gave my team what I could to win the ball game, no matter if it was on defense or offense.”
The Bulldogs (23-11), even against a team that could hold its own against them from a size perspective, forced their way into the paint and outscored No. 3 seed TCU 34-16 there. MSU also forced eight Horned Frogs turnovers in the first quarter alone, and only the 3-point shooting of Madison Conner kept TCU (21-14) within an arm’s length.
A 10-1 run early in the second quarter put the Bulldogs ahead by 10 as Jerkaila Jordan was a factor on both ends of the floor with 15 points and five steals. MSU finished just 2-for-12 from 3-point range, but kept pounding the ball inside and made it count when that approach sent them to the free throw line, making 18 of 20 foul shots.
The Horned Frogs, who dealt with injuries throughout the season, used just six players in the game but had the juice left in them to score 12 straight points in the third quarter, surging into the lead as the Bulldogs went nearly six minutes without scoring. The stretch took head coach Sam Purcell back mentally to the first half of Southeastern Conference play, when the third quarter was MSU’s undoing on multiple occasions.
“Thank God we were playing at home because when you look back on our season, that third quarter has been (when) we’ve had a collapse,” Purcell said. “Our fan base was everything. For them to have a spirit about them, it was like, ‘No, we’ve seen you all year. Not tonight.’”
Carter drilled a hook shot and a second-chance short jumper early in the fourth that pushed the Bulldogs’ lead back to six, but instead of folding, shorthanded TCU made four straight shots to go back in front 56-54. Again, though, it was Carter who had the response, drilling a midrange jumper to tie the game before an aggressive take from Darrione Rogers gave MSU the lead for good.
Grad transfer point guard Lauren Park-Lane, who had eight points and eight assists, extended the lead with a floater from the free-throw line, and Jordan’s jumper with less than 30 seconds on the clock all but put the game away.
“(Carter) is our go-to player. It’s been like that since the beginning of the season,” Park-Lane said. “It didn’t change because we were playing Sedona. We were still going to give her the ball and play off of her and do what we regularly do. Nothing really changed.”
Carter played her 150th game in a Bulldogs uniform, surpassing Teaira McCowan for the most in program history. She also passed LaToya Thomas for second in MSU history in rebounds, behind only McCowan.
The Bulldogs will play either Penn State or Belmont in the WBIT quarterfinals on Thursday, with those two teams meeting Monday evening in State College, Pa. If the Bruins win, MSU would host Belmont; a Nittany Lions victory means the Bulldogs would travel to Pennsylvania. MSU defeated Belmont by a single point on the road back on Nov. 19.
“They left their mark, but we’re not done,” Purcell said. “I don’t want to send them off yet because we still have great games ahead of us. If you keep advancing, you get national exposure. … That’s a great chance where our team gets to be on national television. It’s huge for recruiting, but also these young women deserve to cut down a net. I don’t care what tournament it is. Let’s try to get there and make it happen.”
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