Mississippi State broke above the .500 mark in Southeastern Conference play in a big way Monday night as the Bulldogs took down defending national champion and No. 9 LSU in front of a sold-out crowd at Humphrey Coliseum.
But MSU head coach Sam Purcell does not want that win, as emotional as it was, to define his team’s season. Starting with Thursday night’s game at Kentucky, the Bulldogs (17-5, 4-3 SEC) have nine opportunities left to make their postseason case before the SEC Tournament. As the calendar turns to February, The Dispatch again takes a look at what has gone right and wrong for MSU.
Three up
3-point shooting
The Bulldogs’ outside shooting numbers took a major dip through their first five conference games, but they finished 7-for-17 from deep in a win at Florida on Jan. 22, then followed that up by going 9-for-17 in the upset victory against the Tigers. Debreasha Powe is fourth in the SEC in 3-point percentage, making 41.9 percent of her shots from beyond the arc, and Darrione Rogers and Lauren Park-Lane are also in the top 15. Jerkaila Jordan was a perfect 3-for-3 from distance against LSU. As a team, MSU has risen to third in the conference in 3-point shooting, trailing only South Carolina and Missouri.
Mjracle Sheppard
The freshman has developed into a multi-talented weapon off the bench for the Bulldogs, and she had her coming-out party on the biggest stage MSU has played on so far. Sheppard finished with 12 points against the Tigers, her third game in double figures this year, but even more impressive were her six steals and overall defense against Hailey Van Lith, one of the best point guards in all of women’s college basketball. Despite playing an average of just 17.4 minutes, Sheppard is still in the top 20 in the SEC in steals per game.
Avoiding foul trouble
The Bulldogs commit just 12.7 fouls per game, the fewest in the SEC, and on a team without much depth — particularly in the interior — staying out of foul trouble is critical. Even against an LSU team that gets to the free throw line far more often than any other team in the country, no MSU player even picked up a fourth foul. The Tigers attempted 15 free throws against the Bulldogs, far below their average of 28.4 foul shots per game.
Three down
Frontcourt inconsistency
MSU’s win over LSU was all the more remarkable considering that star center Jessika Carter scored just four points on 1-for-6 shooting. It was just the latest setback in an up-and-down month for Carter, who had double-doubles in wins at Arkansas and Florida and put up 23 points in a victory against Ole Miss, but was held to single digits against Vanderbilt and South Carolina. Arkansas transfer Erynn Barnum has also been inconsistent, particularly in the Bulldogs’ first three SEC games. MSU does not have much depth behind those two, with Ramani Parker out for the year, Nyayongah Gony still returning to full strength and freshman Quanirah Montague still learning to play at this level.
The third quarter, until the LSU game
The Bulldogs had struggled to put four complete quarters together since conference play began, even in their wins, and were outscored in the third quarter in each of their first six SEC contests. That was most notable in a home loss to Tennessee on Jan. 18, when the Volunteers outscored the Bulldogs 21-5 in the period to turn a seven-point deficit into a nine-point lead. But against the Tigers, MSU played one of its best quarters of the season in the third, making 11 of 13 shots and putting up 28 points to take control of the game.
Getting to the free throw line
Free throw attempts are one of the few categories in which the Bulldogs rank behind most of their SEC peers, as they take an average of 18.2 foul shots per game (10th in the conference). MSU has guards like Jordan and Park-Lane who are effective at driving into the paint, as well as one of the best post players in the conference in Carter. None of them are prone to shying away from contact, but the Bulldogs have not been able to draw fouls at quite the rate of other SEC teams.
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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 24 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
