STARKVILLE — Very little has come easily for Mississippi State this season, but the Bulldogs have continued to take care of business against the Southeastern Conference’s lower-tier teams at home.
After honoring seniors Jerkaila Jordan, Eniya Russell and Kayla Thomas pregame, MSU kept its emotions in check and overcame a shaky first quarter to cruise past Texas A&M 81-55 at Humphrey Coliseum on Sunday.
“It’s just bittersweet,” said Jordan, who has started every game with the Bulldogs for the last four years and was fighting back tears during the postgame press conference. “When you’ve been here for so long, you don’t feel like your time is coming to an end because it all goes so fast. I remember my first year here, walking in the building, I never pictured my last. But I’m so glad to go out with this group, these players, these coaches and these fans.”
Facing an Aggies team that had lost seven straight and had not cracked 60 points in a game during that stretch, MSU came out a bit sluggish, surrendering an early seven-point lead and allowing Texas A&M to pull in front for the first time in the final minute of the opening quarter. But the Bulldogs (19-9, 6-8 SEC) allowed just two points over the final six and a half minutes of the second quarter, using an 11-0 run to take control of the game.
Madina Okot scored both the first and last baskets of that run, part of a 16-point, 12-rebound performance that earned the junior center from Kenya her 10th double-double of the year. MSU had issues cleaning things up in the paint but did have a 17-9 edge on the offensive glass, leading to 18 second-chance points to just nine for the Aggies.
“Madina has really started to walk into her own, and she’s coming around at the right time,” Thomas said. “She has definitely put in the work behind the scenes on the things she knows she needs to get better at. She’s a sponge. She listens and she absorbs exactly what you tell her, and she goes out there and plays hard every day.”
The Bulldogs had their best game of the season in terms of ball security. Turnovers have been their greatest weakness throughout the year, but MSU committed just one turnover in the first half and a season-low seven in the game, five of which came in the fourth quarter with the outcome no longer in question.
It was the first time all year the Bulldogs turned the ball over fewer than 10 times, and it came a week after they committed a season-high 26 in a loss at Florida.
“We just had real hard conversations,” head coach Sam Purcell said. “This was a huge off week to make sure they understand the timing of plays, how to set screens, the second or third option, and that was a huge reason why our turnovers were better today.”
MSU pulled away in the third quarter, holding Texas A&M (10-16, 3-11) scoreless over the last four minutes and reeling off 13 straight points. Debreasha Powe had the hot hand from outside, with 11 of her team-high 19 points in the quarter, and she finished 5-for-9 from 3-point range. Russell was also an efficient 3-for-6 from behind the arc, and she and Jordan joined Powe and Okot in double figures with 13 points apiece.
Aggies post player Lauren Ware led her team with 19 points on 7-for-9 shooting, but the Bulldogs kept everyone else quiet.
Former MSU head coach Vic Schaefer, who took the Bulldogs to back-to-back national championship games in 2017 and 2018, returns to Starkville on Thursday night when MSU hosts No. 2 Texas.
“We’re just moving forward each game knowing that every game matters,” Jordan said. “We don’t want to have it like last year. We were right there to make the (NCAA) Tournament and it slipped out of our hands. So just making sure every game matters, we go out there and play our best knowing that we have the postseason ahead of us.”
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