Mississippi State women’s basketball picked up a gritty win on the road Sunday afternoon in Nashville, a 63-62 win at Belmont that keeps the Bulldogs undefeated so far on the season and gives head coach Sam Purcell’s team a quality road win against a tournament regular early in the schedule.
Senior guard Darrione Rogers corralled a rebound with 17 seconds left and converted the putback to give the Bulldogs the lead for good.
MSU (5-0) scraped past the Bruins (2-2) thanks to a collection of scorers in the starting five and off the bench. Jessika Carter led the way with 17 points, followed by JerKaila Jordan with 13, while three other Bulldogs finished with eight points on the afternoon.
Tuti Jones was the leader for the Bruins with 18 points, making a big return from injury for her team, but it wasn’t enough to keep MSU down.
The Bulldogs held a narrow lead at the break after Belmont closed the gap. At one point in the second quarter MSU led by 11, but the Bruins fought hard after a slow start to make it a one-possession game just before halftime, and there the game would stay for most of the second half.
Belmont took a late lead with about three minutes to go riding high with the momentum in front of their home crowd, but the Bulldogs did just enough to stay alive. Down by three late, the Bulldogs got buckets in the last minute of the contest from Carter and Darrione Rogers to get in front before a stop on the final possession sealed the win.
MSU now travels to Katy, Texas for the Van Chancellor Classic, with games against Clemson, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, and Tulsa lined up for the weekend after Thanksgiving.
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