STARKVILLE — A difficult week for Mississippi State women’s basketball came to an end on Sunday with a disappointing loss in Oxford. In-state rivals Ole Miss handed MSU its third loss in seven days, with each opponent posting 90 or more points and winning by double digits.
Though there was a brief respite this week, the schedule is only just heating up.
The Bulldogs (14-4, 1-3 SEC) aren’t just looking to shake a bad stretch, they’re looking to evolve. The group has very little time to lick its wounds with No. 5 Vanderbilt coming to Starkville on Thursday, followed by a visit from No. 7 Kentucky three days later.
“Obviously, we want a ‘1-0’ mentality. You can’t look at it whole,” Purcell said. “We’re all aware of it, but we’ve got to focus on one game at a time and also educating my team. Again, this is a team that doesn’t return a lot of talent. You’ve got to paint a picture helping them, and first that’s my job. I’ve got to help my team right now with these three games lost straight. My message today in film was, ‘There’s layers to this.’”
Purcell broke down facing a Top 25 opponent into percentages for competitiveness, detail and readiness for a fight. His focus at the moment is on the latter two.
“We do it by 100%. There’s 50%, you show up, it’s the competition, and we’re doing that… but to beat a Top 25, it’s the next 40%, where we’re struggling,” he said. “The details and the scout. You can’t get away with just participating. The execution on offense, getting clear, understanding they take this away. Falling into that next breed is that 40% that’s hurting us. If you handle that, I’m not promising it’s easier, then it comes down to 10%, which is a dog fight. Who wants it more? Because if both teams are going head to head at each other, it’s going to come down to being that four-quarter team that we’ve talked about, that we try to establish in practice, and that’s what I’m trying to help them understand to get a signature win.”
The Commodores (17-0, 4-0 SEC) have made a dominant run through their schedule so far. They’re fresh off of a 91-51 beatdown of Texas A&M, and two weeks ago secured a signature win over then-No. 5 LSU. The team’s top scorer, Mikayla Blakes, scored 32 points in that win over the Tigers, boosting her average of 24.9 points per game this season.
“Leading scorer in the SEC, I think third in the country,” Purcell said of Blakes. “Great players make it better. It’s really cool to watch (Blakes) put in the work, I honestly think she never gets tired, so that’s a commitment to her work ethic.”
Purcell spoke highly of the sophomore guard, who the Bulldogs will remember well from last season. They held her to her second-lowest point total of the season in a breakout freshman campaign, which went a long way in MSU’s overtime victory over Vanderbilt.
That was a very different group of Bulldogs, and a Commodores team that is a year older and much more lethal on offense. Purcell made sure to point to that in his analysis of Blakes and the team as a whole ahead of the Thursday meeting.
“That’s what we’re trying to teach our kids: what you do behind the scenes comes to light when the game performs, and she’s doing that,” Purcell continued. “(Blakes) is playing at an all-time high, moving without the ball, her teammates believe in her, and it’s cool to see when a kid retains and stays at a school, they get stronger. Identity is formed, and that’s why you see a Vanderbilt team that is 17-0 and playing really high.”
Of course, Blakes isn’t doing it all on her own. The Commodores are a complete picture because of the efforts of Aubrey Galvan, who is averaging 6.5 assists per game and double-digit points, alongside Justine Pissot, who boasts one of the top hit rates from beyond the arc at 44.3%.
Purcell made sure to highlight another player as well, a sometimes overlooked but experienced member of the squad who does a lot of the dirty work down low for Vandy.
“I think Sacha Washington doesn’t get talked about enough,” he said. “She’s a great competitor and a piece for them before she was hurt last year, and I think they’re better with her. There’s a maturity, a senior mindset about her that is just tough. When you watch the film, she has that non-stat factor. She’s just got swag, an it factor. They’ve got great pieces, they’re well coached, they’ve got a game plan.”
The Bulldogs and Commodores will tip off at 5:30 p.m. today at Humphrey Coliseum. The game will air on SEC Network.
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