Darrione Rogers recorded Mississippi State’s first triple-double since 2000 on Friday night, helping the Bulldogs defeat Mississippi Valley State. On Tuesday, she was named Southeastern Conference Player of the Week, helping MSU make some history as a team.
For the first time ever in SEC women’s basketball, one team has had three different players selected for the conference’s top weekly honor in three consecutive weeks. Jessika Carter won the award for the week of Dec. 11-17 after a dominant three-game stretch following her return from injury, and Lauren Park-Lane was honored for the week of Dec. 18-24 after setting a program-record with 10 made 3-pointers in a win at Colorado State.
The awards did not stop there for the Bulldogs as Quanirah Montague was named SEC Co-Freshman of the Week. Montague finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds, securing her first collegiate double-double, to go along with six blocks against the Delta Devils.
“They’re winning weekly awards because they’re part of a special team,” head coach Sam Purcell said. “It’s just fun, and that’s how basketball should be, but at the same time we have a competitive spirit about us. We’re trying to achieve goals. We’re happy with what happened in the non-conference. Would I like to be undefeated now? Heck yeah, but I also think adversity is good.”
MSU (13-2) closed out non-conference play on a five-game winning streak, and the Bulldogs could well be undefeated if they had stayed healthy. Carter and Erynn Barnum missed both of their losses, which came four days apart against Miami and at Chattanooga, and Montague was also out against the Hurricanes.
The latest bracket projections from ESPN’s Charlie Creme have MSU as a No. 8 seed and one of eight SEC teams in the NCAA Tournament field. Four teams in the SEC are in the top 25 in the latest NET rankings — the Bulldogs check in at No. 32 — but the only teams from the conference in the AP Top 25 are No. 1 South Carolina and No. 7 LSU.
Purcell’s team hosts Vanderbilt in the SEC opener on Thursday night, with both teams receiving three votes in the latest AP poll.
“The adversity (has) helped us,” said senior guard Jerkaila Jordan, who leads MSU with 17.2 points per game. “No matter what we face, this team can overcome it all, and we just punch, learn (and) grow.”
Scouting Vanderbilt
The Commodores, long resigned to the bottom tier of the SEC, are enjoying a resurgent season. Vanderbilt finished 3-13 in conference play last year and has not won more than five SEC games in a season since 2014, when it last made the NCAA Tournament. But Shea Ralph, in her third season as head coach, has the Commodores at 13-1 with their only loss coming on the road against a top-5 North Carolina State team.
Ralph spent 13 seasons as an assistant coach at Connecticut, her alma mater, helping the Huskies to 12 Final Four appearances and six national championships under Geno Auriemma. After two rebuilding years in Nashville, she is finding that winning formula again, and Purcell called Vanderbilt “the most improved team in the country.”
Jordyn Cambridge leads the Commodores with 14.8 points per game and also spearheads a much-improved defense, leading the SEC by far with 4.6 steals per contest. Right behind Cambridge offensively is Sacha Washington, averaging 14.6 points and 8.6 rebounds in her second year as a starter. Khamil Pierre shared SEC Freshman of the Week honors with Montague for strong showings in blowout wins over Fairleigh Dickinson and Radford.
“I just have so much respect for Shea. She knows what winning looks like,” Purcell said. “Cambridge is one of the best players in the SEC, so we know we have our work cut out for us. I’m excited about our non-conference schedule because there’s certain things that they do that we’ve seen this year. They remind me of Memphis, but at the same time I think they’re the best team we’ve played on our schedule at this point.”
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