STARKVILLE — For 4 minutes, 57 seconds in the second quarter, the Mississippi State women’s basketball team displayed all of its dominance.
With Jordan Danberry and Jazzmun Holmes harassing the Ole Miss guards and Anriel Howard and Teaira McCowan providing a one-two scoring punch, the Bulldogs used a 14-0 run to turn a double-digit lead into a comfortable cushion.
The remaining 35-plus minutes included a lot of the signs MSU has exhibited in solidifying a spot in the top 10, but they didn’t pack the urgency or the intensity No. 7 MSU delivered in the run that pushed it to an 80-49 victory against Ole Miss in a Southeastern Conference game before a crowd of 10,337 at Humphrey Coliseum.
“I think Jazz (Holmes) and Jo (Danberry) got interested on defense,” MSU coach Vic Schaefer said. “I think they just turned it up a notch. Anriel got a steal or two. She actually had three in the game. I thought that’s when it completely changed the whole complexion of the game. It had to do with ball pressure and passing lanes. They were out there trying to run their offense from the rim, and I thought that’s kind of when it all turned.”
McCowan led MSU (19-1, 7-0 SEC) with 33 points and 13 rebounds. Howard added 16 points, 11 rebounds, and three steals to help the Bulldogs earn their 10th-straight victory against Rebels (8-13, 2-5). Danberry added 12 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists, and Andra Espinoza-Hunter had 10 points in her second start of the
season.
The win was MSU’s 23rd-straight SEC regular-season victory and 31st in a row at home. It came in front of the fourth-largest crowd in program history.
MSU turned the tide early in the second quarter. Leading 27-17, McCowan converted two free throws and Danberry had a steal and a layup to spark the run. A steal by Holmes led to a layup by Howard. McCowan and Holmes continued to pound the offensive glass to fuel the run, which ended with a jumper by Howard off a turnover.
“His guards just turned it up with Danberry and (Myah) Taylor,” Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin. “I told the girls at halftime, “Guys, I know it seems everywhere you turn, they’re there. That’s how we want to defend. That’s called guarding your yard’ They just do such an incredible job of sitting down and defending. It really bothered us, and it’s to the point for the officials that they don’t know what to call because they are always playing at a high level all the time. I think they turned it up, and we had a meltdown. Second quarters have been our Achilles’ heel all season, and so it got us again this game.”
MSU forced 20 turnovers and turned them into a 15-3 edge in points off turnovers. McCowan had seven offensive rebounds and Danberry had five as part of MSU’s 43-27 rebounding advantage. That edge translated into a 42-14 cushion in points in the paint.
As dominating as the Bulldogs were in those phases, they weren’t able to knock out the Rebels, even though the final margin matched the largest margin of victory in the last 10 wins. After the game, McPhee-McCuin, who is in her first season at Ole Miss, had a feeling Schaefer wouldn’t be happy. Coming from a Jacksonville program that won 22, 23, and 24 games the last three seasons, she said she would’ve been “pissed” with the performance because she knows where she is trying to go.
“He’s trying to win a national championship,” McPhee-McCuin said. “I’m trying to win SEC games. Different kind of journey right now.”
Schaefer was asked about McPhee-McCuin’s comment after the game and said the final score had a lot to do with his team’s inconsistency.
“It’s just that as a whole we get disinterested so fast,” Schaefer said. “It’s frustrating for me, you know you want to give your opponents credit, and we certainly will do that, but, at the same time, it just has more to do in my mind with us. No disrespect. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing. I’ve had this same conversation with them before. I called the timeout tonight because I just didn’t think they were playing hard. It was an unbelievable crowd, fourth-largest that we’ve had. You’ve got people up top hanging from the rafters, and it’s boring. The third quarter is boring. You’re boring me, and it’s boring because we’ve lost our intensity.
“There’s a couple of triggers as a coach, how you can tell if your team is engaged, but we’re not engaged. It’s frustrating because a coach always wants top level for 40 minutes. That’s what you want. You don’t want to lose any continuity through substitution. You want them to give it everything they’ve got on the floor. That’s where I am with this team right now. We had that little spurt there in the second quarter we talked about and that’s great. Can we sustain that for any period of time or do we have to have a lull for eight minutes and then all of a sudden for two minutes it’s over? Let me get interested and deny a ball and have ball pressure, play a passing lane, and all that. I just want more. More is better, isn’t it? We want more.”
Danberry said Schaefer’s yelling prompted the change in the Bulldogs’ defense. She said MSU’s ability to raise its level of play increased the energy of the team and carried it through the rest of the quarter.
Asked what happens when the Bulldogs aren’t as interested as Schaefer wants, Danberry said, “I think sometimes we get comfortable with the lead. We may lay back sometimes and not play as tight on defense or lock in all the way, I guess. We have to find a way to stay focused even if we are up by a certain amount.”
Crystal Allen led Ole Miss with 15 points, while former MSU player La’Karis Salter and Shannon Dozier had 13.
MSU will face LSU at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 46 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 46 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
