Slow start costs Bulldogs
GREENVILLE, S.C. – Aliyah Matharu stepped to the podium after Sunday afternoon’s loss to South Carolina with tears in her eyes.
Matharu and the rest of her freshman teammates have been through some tough moments in their first year, but this one MATHARU seemed to sting a little harder. To be frank, Sunday was a beat down for MSU. The Bulldogs fell behind by double figures in the first half and it got all the way up to 27 points before South Carolina coach called off the dogs.
Frustration and disappointment were evident from Matharu postgame, but her competitive nature was the reason. She played the entire fourth quarter on Sunday and had 17 points in the game with four rebounds in 18 minutes. It was with the game well in hand, but Matharu wasn’t going to go out without a fight.
Those last 18 minutes were important for the Bulldogs. It showed that they weren’t willing to just accept a blowout against the Gamecocks. Matharu exemplified what MSU was missing on a day where they needed a boost.
“I’m very confident,” Matharu said. “I love playing against competition and that’s why I came here. (Sunday) was another obstacle for us and we didn’t do our best, but we’re going to use this as fuel and get better for the tournament.”
The competitiveness of Matharu is going to have to be duplicated by the rest of the Bulldogs moving forward, most notably when they play the Gamecocks in postseason. MSU has played South Carolina six times in the regular season and five times in the postseason over the last five years.
During that stretch, State has gone 3-3 in the regular season with a total scoring margin at 20 points.
In the postseason, the Gamecocks have gone 5-0 against the Bulldogs and won by 61 points total with all five games being decided by double digits.
MSU has lost four games against South Carolina in the SEC Tournament championship and a national championship. The Bulldogs clinched an outright SEC Championship last season on Gamecocks’ court, but the win in the biggest games between the two have been going for South Carolina.
What was encouraging to Schaefer post game was that he had his freshmen playing in key moments as they have been all year. Matharu, Rickea Jackson and Jamya Mingo-young were all in the game late earlier this year as MSU lost a nail-biter at South Carolina. Those three were again in there in crunch time on Sunday.
While the Gamecocks are incredibly young and talented themselves, they’ve had key positions filled by seniors. If there’s any safe prediction to be made, it’s that the two teams will continue to be the class of the
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