STARKVILLE — It was winning time for Mississippi State women’s basketball entering the final frame of a back-and-forth contest with Mizzou on Sunday.
The Bulldogs were in a battle, trailing 68-65, and they had an opportunity to take charge in the fourth quarter with the game still in the balance.
Both teams entered the final frame sluggish, with Mizzou shooting 0-5 and MSU shooting 0-6 through the first three minutes of play.
The Bulldogs finally got a shot to fall with Madison Francis hitting a three-pointer. The Tigers (15-9, 3-6 SEC) found their shot as well, but an 8-0 run featuring a pair of three-pointers from Trayanna Crisp saw MSU (16-7, 3-6) go up 78-74 with three minutes to go.
That’s when the Tigers took over.
Back-to-back triples from Grace Slaughter flipped the game, and MSU couldn’t get another shot to fall.
The Bulldogs missed five straight shots over the final two minutes, three from distance, and suddenly, a neck-and-neck game was settled.
“You had the right players taking the right shots,” head coach Sam Purcell said of the closing moments. “You could play Monday quarterback and say, ‘Pull it out, should have ran a set…’ They were clogging the paint and making it ugly. We thought transition would be our best way to get easy shots and rhythm shots, and it just didn’t go in.”
While MSU shot 1-8 in the final three minutes, the Tigers hit 4-5 shots to win 88-80.
Late attempts came from MSU’s leading scorers, Kharyssa Richardson and Trayanna Crisp, but the focus wasn’t on them. After all, the Bulldogs had a strong night offensively with five players in double figures. What caught Purcell’s attention was the defense.
“If (Crisp) makes that, it’s a different game, but with that being said, it had nothing to do with offense,” Purcell said. “Defense was God-awful. We challenged them starting the first five minutes of the timeout. We made rotations, we were searching, the whole halftime speech was about defense, and this team knows this: You can’t give up 88 points.”
“We were trying different coverages, and I think we could have been better on defense today,” Crisp added. “I think credit to them for making some big shots, and they were taking it down, making layups. So, I think we just have to correct that in the future.”
The Bulldogs made adjustments throughout the game, whether it be in the lineup or defensive approach. It just wasn’t enough.
“You name it, we did it, and the bottom line is it wasn’t good enough,” Purcell said of the defensive play. “They did a great job of attacking and I think their getting to the line in the fourth quarter was the ball game.”
The Tigers closed out the game with four hits from the foul line, but it started with hits from distance to fuel a 14-2 run to close out the win.
Slaughter and Shannon Dowell, the top scorers for the Tigers on the season and on Sunday, are both proven talents, but Mizzou relied on offensive production across the board. Chloe Sotell, Abbey Schreacke and Saniah Tyler combined to hit seven shots from outside as the Tigers hit 12 3-pointers as a team. The 38 points in the paint and efficiency from the foul line was big for Mizzou, but the dagger came from the perimeter.
Purcell gave credit to the Tigers for the win, and said that it wasn’t a surprise the way they set the pace offensively. He pointed to a prolific performance against a Top-10 Texas team, but also took the opportunity to again point out how deep the SEC is.
Despite the strong production from the visitors, the Bulldogs were right there and failed to close the game. That made the difference, and it could make the difference for the team when it’s time to compare resumes for postseason seeding and bids.
“With all that being said, we had a chance,” Purcell said. “It’s what we always talk about in the SEC, it’s about the last five minutes, it’s a dogfight and we didn’t win the dogfight.”
This week won’t be any easier for the squad. They have to go back on the road to face No. 3 South Carolina, the national runner up from a year ago and current conference leaders.
The Bulldogs will only have a day or two to reset after a tough loss before they have to travel to Columbia. It won’t be easy after an emotional loss, but that’s the nature of the game, and it’s a reality of their conference that they can’t let opportunities like that slip, especially when the goal is to become one of the many contenders at the top of the standings.
“It’s extremely frustrating. That’s where it’s my job as the head coach to paint a picture, to give the elevator speech,” Purcell said. “To understand, we have to finish. The SEC, I’ve said this for four years. I know you have a responsibility to talk about ranked teams and not ranked teams. The teams that aren’t ranked are still winning programs… You’ve got to show up. Everybody wants to win, everybody’s got a .500 record or better. They know that we’ve got to do our part, stay laser focused one game at a time, and like I said after the Tennessee game… that can’t be the highlight of our season. We’ve got to stay hungry, we’ve gotta get better and be consistent.”
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