Inside to get victory
Mississippi State head women’s basketball coach Nikki Mccray-penson told her players all week leading up to the game against New Orleans that their size would be the difference.
The No. 6 Bulldogs used the 3-point field goal to roll past Jackson State in the opening game of the year, but they were clear and concise that they were going to control the paint on Wednesday night. The final product was a 106-51 victory in which Mississippi State dominated every bit of the paint to move to 2-0 for the season.
The size advantage led the Bulldogs (2-0) to a 5116 win in the rebounding column and they outscored the Privateers (1-1) 72-12 in the paint. Jessika Carter led the way with 23 points on 9 of 12 shooting and added 10 rebounds as she notched her 12th career double-double and first one in 2020.
“Obviously, played a big Mccray-penson our size
factor,” said. “I thought we really dominated the paint which we needed to. Hopefully, it gave (Carter and Yemiyah Morris) some confidence as we continue to play games.”
Jamya Mingo-young added 18 points on 8-of9 shooting and had eight rebounds and five assists. Rickea Jackson scored 16 points, and Morris had 14.
It was the secondstraight impressive performance from the sophomore Mingo-young, who had 13 points, nine rebounds and
five assists against Jackson State. The 18 points were her career high, but the rebounding margin continued to show MSU’S willingness to get the guards to the glass as fellow guard Madison Hayes had eight rebounds a game after debuting with the Bulldogs and pulling down nine.
“Our post players have their own problems with bigs around the country so we’re challenging our guards to go get the rebounds,” Mccray-penson said. “Whoever gets the rebounds is the one who pushes the ball and they’re the ones that usually score. I think they’ve kind of bought into that and I like that.”
Mississippi State led 25-9 in the first quarter and 5728 at the half. The Bulldogs shot 63% and held the Privateers to 32%.
While Mccray-penson wasn’t pleased postgame with the team’s defense, MSU did hold New Orleans to nine points in both the first and fourth quarters and they turned them over 16 times.
Dionjhae
Thomas
led
New Orleans with 11 points, and Erin Randle had 10.
Carter’s big night set the tone as she scored the first basket and didn’t stop taking advantage of the mismatch down low. The junior Allsoutheastern Conference performer is doing her best to be more aggressive in the post this season to help the Bulldogs continue to compete for championships.
“It boosts my confidence,” Carter said. “Even though it was a small team, just knowing I’m finishing around the basket and making easy buckets, that’s a big part of my confidence. If you’re bigger than everybody, you should be able to produce in the paint. When we saw that, we said we were getting the ball inside.”
MSU has its biggest test of the young season on
Saturday when it travels to take on South Florida on the road. The Bulls are 1-1 this season but blew past Jacksonville 84-46 in the opening game of the season and just recently gave No. 4 Baylor a major jolt on Tuesday when they lost 67-62.
The game on Saturday will be at 6 p.m. in Tampa, Fla. and can be seen on ESPN+ online.