On Thursday, Mississippi State women’s basketball coach Sam Purcell gave credit to Ole Miss after his team’s difficult loss on the road in Oxford and remarked on how difficult it is to go and play against any team in the Southeastern Conference.
That held true again as MSU suffered another defeat in Athens, with Georgia winning handily, 62-34.
Mississippi State (15-6, 4-5 SEC) suffered a second straight loss on the road, both in embarrassing fashion as MSU once again let its opponent out in front early.
“You know what? This one surprised me,” Purcell said. “My kids were ready. I mean they were in the locker room, I thought the mood was good, and we addressed it about the slow start and talked about, you know, we’ve got to get our mojo back. But this week, that mojo has got to be on the defensive end.”
Consistency has been a problem on both sides of the ball for the Bulldogs this season, and although the hot start was big for building a lead, the hosts simply outshot Purcell’s team.
The Georgia shooters were rolling early, outscoring the Bulldogs 21-5 in the first quarter. They hit 25 of 54 shots to the Bulldogs’ 12 of 54 mark. A turnover problem held back the Bulldogs a bit, but their poor defense and inefficiency on offense kept them from ever getting back in the game.
“When we’re playing well, and we’re scoring on the offensive end, we’re an elite team,” Purcell continued. “We play really good basketball, but when we don’t score we’ve got to stay tough, and we’ve got to bend, but we don’t break, and tonight obviously Georgia is a really, really good defensive team. (Georgia coach) Katie (Abrahamson-Henderson) I think led the nation last year in points allowed. They make it ugly; they run a real matchup zone for 40 minutes and never play man, and you know what, we just didn’t make the right cuts. When we got down early, we got emotional, and then when we get emotional, we don’t move. That’s not a good look for us in order to win, and it’s going to be a hard film session, but most importantly it’s going to be a hard week on the practice court this week.”
Purcell said he got his players in the mindset that they had to be prepared to come in and grind out a result in what they expected to be a difficult game, but they had no answers for the zone defense and even lost their reliable answers on the offensive end. Jessika Carter had limited looks with how well she was locked down, scoring only eight points and turning the ball over nine times.
“When we need an easy one, obviously Jessika Carter has been our answer all year, but they had, in that matchup, they’re able to do multiple things and play great scout report defense,” Purcell said. “I thought they did that tonight and made it ugly.”
The typically reliable guard trio of Anastasia Hayes, JerKaila Jordan and Ahlana Smith was shut down as well, combining for just 15 points, collectively shooting 5 of 19 from the field and 0 for 8 from beyond the arc. The effort and high work rate were there, especially from Jordan, who kept fighting and looking for ways to contribute even as her shots didn’t fall. It made it more difficult when things didn’t fall their way, and the frustration from the poor offensive production continued to build throughout the team.
“I see the last two games, JerKaila Jordan doesn’t want to lose,” Purcell said. “When all of a sudden we start off slow she’s trying to go get it, to your point about the rebounds. She’s just trying to find a way to get the ball, and so with that she is exerting so much energy, and then sometimes the shots, because she doesn’t want to lose, she might be playing a little fast. But it’s all about effort. She’s trying to get after it, she’s trying to give her best punch, but obviously she’s got to get some help from her teammates, and we can’t do this just a one-man band or one-woman band. It’s got to be all of us.”
Purcell and his team have a lot of work to do in February to reach their goal of getting to the big dance. After a full week to prepare, the Bulldogs return to action at the Hump against Tennessee at 6 p.m. Feb. 6. Then they go back on the road to face Florida at 6 p.m. Feb. 9.
Both games are currently scheduled to air on the SEC Network.
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