Three nights after Mississippi State finished 9-for-17 from 3-point range in an upset win over No. 9 LSU, the Bulldogs could not hit a single 3-pointer for more than 39 minutes.
MSU had led by as many as nine points early in the second half but was on the brink of what would have been a highly disappointing defeat at the hands of Kentucky, trailing by six with less than a minute to go in regulation. But Darrione Rogers hit the Bulldogs’ first 3-pointer of the night, and Debreasha Powe connected twice from deep in the last 20 seconds to help MSU send the game to overtime, where the Bulldogs survived for a 77-74 win over the Wildcats.
It was a sloppy affair all around Thursday night at Rupp Arena, as MSU (18-5, 5-3 Southeastern Conference) committed 24 turnovers while Kentucky (9-13, 2-6) committed 18. Jessika Carter scored all 10 of the Bulldogs’ points in the first quarter, and she finished with 25 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks in 42 minutes of action for her ninth double-double of the season.
MSU needed every last one of those points, considering the visitors were not getting much offensive production from anyone else. Erynn Barnum, Carter’s frontcourt partner, had 14 points on 6-for-11 shooting, but Jerkaila Jordan, coming off a 24-point performance against the Tigers, was held to six points before fouling out late in the fourth quarter. She also turned the ball over five times.
The Bulldogs used a 9-2 run in the second quarter to take a seven-point lead at halftime, but nine straight points by the Wildcats in the third put the hosts in front. MSU almost certainly would have lost had it not gone 17-for-21 at the free throw line, and two of those misses came in the final second of overtime with the game already virtually wrapped up.
Kentucky held a 19-14 edge on the offensive glass, but the Bulldogs did a much better job taking advantage of their second-chance opportunities, with 18 such points to the Wildcats’ nine. MSU also did well to distribute the ball, recording 20 assists on 28 made field goals.
With the Bulldogs in need of quick points, down 63-57 with less than a minute to go, freshman Jasmine Brown-Hagger drove along the baseline and whipped a pass out to Rogers on the far corner before falling down out of bounds. Rogers, with a hand in her face, nailed a triple to keep her team alive. After Kentucky split a pair of free throws, Powe’s first 3-pointer cut the deficit to one, and following a turnover, the sophomore was good again from distance to put MSU in front.
“Is she a sophomore?” Purcell asked rhetorically. “That way she hit that clutch gene there at the end, that was next level.”
Kentucky was not done yet, though — Eniya Russell’s layup with three seconds left sent the game to overtime. But Powe knocked down another 3-pointer early in the extra session to give the Bulldogs a four-point lead, one they would never relinquish. Big buckets inside by Carter and Barnum helped MSU hold off the Wildcats.
The Bulldogs avoided what would have been their worst loss of the season, considering Kentucky’s NET ranking of 167 is easily the worst among SEC teams. They will take their three-game winning streak to College Station, Texas on Sunday for a 3 p.m. game against Texas A&M.
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