STARKVILLE — Mississippi State has had no issues jumping on opponents early in games. It’s the last three quarters that have given the Bulldogs trouble.
In all three of their Southeastern Conference home games, MSU raced out to big first-quarter leads against three quality teams — defending national champion South Carolina, an Oklahoma squad that was in the top 10 at the time, and arch-rival Ole Miss. Head coach Sam Purcell’s team has closed out just one of those games with a win, and that win over the Sooners required a second-half comeback after Oklahoma rallied from 14 points down to pull ahead.
Once opposing teams adjust to them on both offense and defense, the Bulldogs have a hard time adjusting to those adjustments. Tennessee and Ole Miss in particular clogged every passing lane and made even inbounding the ball difficult. MSU has turned the ball over an average of 18.2 times over their last five games.
“It’s the turnovers. That’s the counter-adjustment,” Purcell said. “When you give other teams opportunities (to get) points off turnovers, those have been the dagger for us. Can we simplify the playbook? What can we do, passing-wise, to stop some of this?”
Four SEC teams actually turn the ball over more often than MSU, including Auburn, which visits Humphrey Coliseum tonight. But as a team, the Bulldogs have 101 turnovers and 78 assists through six conference games. Denim DeShields and Eniya Russell have been especially turnover-prone, although Jerkaila Jordan and Madina Okot are not immune to the turnover bug.
MSU committed just two turnovers in the first quarter against an Ole Miss team that forces more than 23 per game. Once the Rebels figured out where the Bulldogs wanted to go with the ball, they made MSU work for every pass, turning 23 turnovers into 26 points.
The Bulldogs (15-5, 2-4 SEC) are a good defensive team when they go into their usual sets in the half-court, but live-ball turnovers force them out of rhythm, and MSU has struggled with transition defense throughout the year.
“It’s not as simple as one thing. It’s dead-ball turnovers on inbounds, it’s passing turnovers, it’s dribbling turnovers,” Purcell said. “So with these young women, just trying to show them right now what a great team we can be. But when we have these losses and we reflect, it’s coming down, not so much to the opponents changing. It’s us turning over the ball.”
Scouting Auburn
The Tigers (10-9, 1-5) improved from 10 wins to 16 to 20 over the last three years under head coach Johnnie Harris, a longtime former Bulldogs assistant during the Vic Schaefer years. But Auburn dropped its first five SEC games this season, getting in the win column last Sunday by beating last-place Missouri.
The schedule has done the Tigers no favors — they have already faced LSU, Kentucky and Texas, and Auburn even led LSU on the road after a quarter before losing by a respectable 10-point margin.
“We’ve come up with every turnover drill and passing drill,” Purcell said. “It’s not going to be easy with Auburn. Auburn gets after it. They’re going to force a lot of turnovers, so we’ll see if we can grow from this last game.”
Auburn forces 21.3 turnovers on average and is one of the SEC’s better defensive teams, holding teams under 60 points per game. The Tigers have not been as strong offensively, and one of their best players, Arkansas transfer Taliah Scott, has played in just three games with her last appearance coming on Nov. 22.
DeYona Gaston has paced Auburn in Scott’s absence, and she is third in the SEC in scoring at 21.4 points per game. Without Scott, the Tigers take the fewest 3-pointers in the conference, so MSU can focus on defending the interior. Ole Miss was just 2-for-13 from behind the arc in its win in Starkville, though, making it even more important that the Bulldogs take care of the ball.
“They’ve played tough competition,” Purcell said. “(Harris) has been committed to getting after it with denial defense, picking you up in full court. They play hard and because they play hard, she’s in position night in and night out to give her team a chance to win, and I’m expecting no less.”
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