Mississippi State’s run in the Southeastern Conference Tournament ended Thursday evening at the hands of its biggest rival with an 85-73 loss to Ole Miss in the second round.

The No. 10 seed Bulldogs scored the game’s first six points, but the seventh-seeded Rebels proceeded to go on an 11-0 run and led almost the entire rest of the way. Jerkaila Jordan and Madina Okot led MSU (21-11, 7-9 SEC) with 14 points each, and Destiney McPhaul, Chandler Prater and Eniya Russell were also in double figures. Okot added 10 rebounds for her 11th double-double of the year.

Madison Scott, who had 30 points in a win over the Bulldogs in Starkville during the regular season, led Ole Miss (20-9, 10-6) with 20, matching her teammate Kennedy Todd-Williams to lead all scorers. Head coach Sam Purcell fell to 1-5 against Ole Miss in his three years at MSU.

The Rebels took a nine-point lead, their largest of the game, to end the third quarter, and Jordan had an unfortunate slip on MSU’s final possession of that period. The Bulldogs then committed offensive fouls on their first two possessions of the fourth, allowing Ole Miss to go ahead by double digits. Foul trouble also hurt MSU down the stretch, as Jordan and Prater each had four fouls early in the fourth quarter.

Takeaways

1. Turnovers remained an issue for the Bulldogs. Against one of the best defensive teams in the SEC, MSU’s biggest problem reared its ugly head. The Bulldogs turned the ball over six times in each of the first two quarters, with the Rebels’ Tameiya Sadler recording three first-half steals. McPhaul was good to go after injuring her ankle Wednesday night in a win over Missouri, but she was a bit sloppy, with four turnovers in the first half.

MSU was unable to keep Ole Miss out of the passing lanes, and the Rebels converted the Bulldogs’ 12 first-half turnovers into 13 points. Five of those turnovers came in the last four minutes and change of the second quarter, helping Ole Miss end the half on a tiebreaking 7-0 run.

2. The Rebels were uncharacteristically hot from distance. MSU collapsed its defense to deny Ole Miss easy baskets around the hoop, a sound strategy against a Rebels team that has size but struggles to shoot 3-pointers. But the Bulldogs allowed too many open looks along the perimeter, and Ole Miss — which was just 2-for-13 from behind the arc in its win at Humphrey Coliseum in January — shot 50 percent from 3-point range in the first half.

The Rebels were not nearly as sharp from outside in the second half but still shot 53 percent overall for the game.

3. MSU has likely done enough to earn a trip to the NCAA Tournament. Despite a losing record in SEC play, the Bulldogs had a strong start to the season highlighted by a neutral-site win over Utah. MSU’s conference wins over Oklahoma and Vanderbilt have aged well, and even with a couple of losses to inferior teams in Missouri and Florida at the buzzer, the Bulldogs are a projected NCAA Tournament team after narrowly missing out in 2024.

Purcell and MSU will find out its destination during the selection show on Mar. 16.