Mississippi State was turning things in its favor early in the second quarter Thursday evening with help from both its backcourt and frontcourt.

Jerkaila Jordan knocked down a 3-pointer and a layup within a minute of each other, and Destiney McPhaul did the same to help the Bulldogs quickly erase an eight-point deficit. A pair of free throws from center Madina Okot gave MSU the lead for the first time since the opening three minutes of the first quarter.

But that was the high point for head coach Sam Purcell and the Bulldogs against rival Ole Miss in the second round of the SEC Tournament. The No. 7 seed Rebels took control with seven straight points to end the first half and never trailed after that in an 85-73 victory over No. 10 seed MSU, sending the Bulldogs home from Greenville, South Carolina and putting them in the clubhouse.

“We made runs and we’d tie or we’d get up a little bit, and then we just couldn’t sustain the runs,” associate head coach Fred Castro said on the MSU radio broadcast postgame. “Ole Miss looked like an experienced ball club that has a bunch of fifth-year seniors, and their experience showed. You look at a lot of the effort numbers, we out-rebounded them, we shot it well enough to win, but the reality is we didn’t get the stops that we needed at the critical times.”

The Bulldogs (21-11, 7-9 Southeastern Conference) came out on the attack, with three baskets in the paint in the first 90 seconds to build an early 6-0 lead. Ole Miss (20-9, 10-6) quickly stormed back with an 11-0 run, turning MSU over three times during that stretch. The Rebels defend and force turnovers as well as just about any SEC team, and their length and active hands led to 12 MSU turnovers in the first half and 21 in the game.

Ole Miss does not excel at outside shooting, but the Rebels shot 50 percent from behind the arc in the first half. Sira Thienou, the 21-year-old freshman from Mali who had nine steals in Ole Miss’ regular-season win over the Bulldogs, beat MSU with her offense this time around, going 3-for-3 from 3-point range.

“They’re really long (and) they’re really athletic,” Castro said. “They get you out a lot of your entries. They’re pretty much 6-foot-1 or bigger across the board, and when they substitute, they get bigger.”

The closest the Bulldogs could cut the deficit in the second half was three points, and after an unfortunate slip from Jerkaila Jordan on the final possession of the third quarter, MSU entered the fourth down nine. The Rebels quickly pushed the lead out to double digits from there, led by Madison Scott and Kennedy Todd-Williams with 20 points apiece. That duo was a combined 14-for-22 from the floor, and Ole Miss as a team shot 53 percent for the game.

The Bulldogs had a 46-32 edge in paint points, but the Rebels excelled at the short- and mid-range jumpers. Jordan and Madina Okot each had 14 points to lead MSU, with Okot adding 10 rebounds for her 11th double-double of the year.

“Madina played a solid game, but we couldn’t establish her the way that we wanted to,” Castro said. “As we move forward in March and the NCAA Tournament, (those are) things that we want to make sure we get better at. This is going to be a film we certainly take from and learn from.”

Despite a losing record in SEC play, the Bulldogs had a strong start to the season highlighted by a neutral-site win over Utah. MSU’s conference wins over Oklahoma and Vanderbilt have aged well, and even with a couple of losses to inferior teams in Missouri and Florida at the buzzer, the Bulldogs are a projected NCAA Tournament team after narrowly missing out in 2024.

MSU will learn its destination during the selection show on Mar. 16.

“The teams that go on runs are the ones that are playing their best basketball,” Castro said. “We want to take full advantage of these next two weeks. I know Coach Purcell and his staff last year, going to the WBIT, certainly did that and made a run in postseason play. We want to do the same thing this year, instead of the WBIT, in the NCAA Tournament.”