Mississippi State is in the clubhouse now. And it will be a long 10 days of waiting for the Bulldogs until they learn their postseason fate.
From the opening tip to the final buzzer, No. 8 seed MSU struggled to find any cracks in Texas A&M’s outstanding defense. The Bulldogs made just three of 17 shots in the first quarter en route to a 72-56 loss to the No. 9 seed Aggies in the second round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament in Greenville, S.C.
If MSU’s season is in fact over, it’s a far more abrupt and disappointing conclusion than head coach Sam Purcell and company were envisioning. At this time last month, the Bulldogs (21-11, 8-8 SEC) were riding high, tied for second in the conference after winning five straight games, including a historic upset of defending national champion LSU.
Since then, MSU dropped six of seven, and its NCAA Tournament prospects are anything but certain. The Bulldogs fell to losing Florida and Kentucky teams at home, blowing a 10-point fourth-quarter lead in the latter game. They faded down the stretch in a loss to rival Ole Miss, and lost by double digits on the road against Alabama and Auburn before beating last-place Missouri in the final game of the regular season.
Whatever momentum MSU carried from that win into Greenville evaporated quickly. Texas A&M pushed the Bulldogs around in the paint to score the game’s first six points Thursday, and after MSU tied it on 3-pointers from Jerkaila Jordan and Debreasha Powe, an 8-0 run by the Aggies gave them the lead for good. Purcell’s team did hang around and trailed by just four at halftime, but the third quarter, as it often was early in SEC play, proved to be the Bulldogs’ undoing.
MSU went nearly four minutes without a made field goal as Texas A&M went on a 12-0 run to stretch the Bulldogs’ deficit to 17. Aicha Coulibaly, the Aggies’ Swiss Army knife, had a game-high 17 points as well as three steals, and Janiah Barker got the better of Jessika Carter in the post with 15 points and nine rebounds.
Texas A&M also had leading scorer Endyia Rogers back after she missed the Aggies’ last six regular-season games with a knee injury, and in just 16 minutes off the bench, Rogers made her impact felt with 12 points on 5-for-7 shooting, including 2-for-2 from behind the arc.
Carter and sixth woman Darrione Rogers each had 12 points to lead MSU, but open looks were hard to come by all afternoon. Rogers, a 41 percent 3-point shooter, finished just 2-for-8 from deep. Jordan, coming off an 18-point third quarter explosion against Missouri last Sunday, shot just 3-for-13 against a Texas A&M team that allows 58 points per game, fewer than anyone in the SEC except for undefeated and top-ranked South Carolina.
The Bulldogs also fell to the Aggies in the second round in their first SEC Tournament game last season, but as the No. 5 seed with a 9-7 conference record, they had a little bit more wiggle room and made the NCAA Tournament as one of the last four teams in the field. MSU then defeated Illinois in a First Four game and proceeded to upset Creighton before losing to Notre Dame in the round of 32.
No SEC team with 20 or more wins and at least a .500 record in conference play has failed to earn an NCAA Tournament bid, but the Bulldogs will certainly test that this year. The selection show will air on ESPN at 7 p.m. central time on Mar. 17.
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