State looks for complete effort at Texas A&M
It hasn’t been the ideal start to the season for Nikki Mccray-penson and the Mississippi State Bulldogs as they have started the year 8-3 and are 3-2 in Southeastern Conference play.
It’s the way that MSU has lost its three games that has been most frustrating. The Bulldogs lost a game on the road at No. 16 South Florida in overtime, dropped another overtime game to top 15 Kentucky and they’re coming off a loss to Alabama in a game in which they led by as much as 12 points.
Finishing games has been the challenge. Even in wins like Florida and Ole Miss, State had trouble closing things out in the fourth quarter. Most of that has been a lack of execution for four quarters in Mccray-penson’s mind. MSU puts two solid quarters together and falters in the other two and that’s not a winning formula.
“You’ve got to have experience on the floor and we don’t have that experience that most teams have to close out games,” Mccray-penson said. “The first half we did exactly what we wanted to do in how we wanted to score and how we wanted to attack them. You’ve got to stay locked in and we fell short of that.”
Execution is one thing and effort goes right along with it. The Bulldogs had some effort plays missing on Thursday night against Alabama like giving up offensive rebounds again and second chance baskets. State is winning the rebounding battle this season, but it’s getting closer and closer to flipping as it has 41 a game to 38. In SEC play, MSU is losing that battle.
One player that has added much more effort and intensity to the lineup is freshman Madison Hayes. The Chattanooga, Tenn., native made her first career start in the game against Alabama and gave the Bulldogs a spark when she was in the game with a nine points on 4-of-7 shooting, four rebounds, a steal and an assist in a careerhigh 26 minutes.
Hayes is averaging 5.3 points and 4.5 rebounds and that production is bound to continue to climb the way she is playing.
“Madison is an intangible player,” Mccray-penson said. “She rebounds, she has great energy and she’s aggressive. When she’s doing those things, she helps us. She’s one of two players that consistently pursues the rebound. You can see when something good happens, she has great energy. She’s continuing to develop, but I like where she is.”
MSU will need much more than Hayes’ effort the rest of the way and especially today. After losing to the Tide, the Bulldogs are now going to the road to take on No. 7 Texas A&M (12-1, 3-1 SEC), which is a team coming off of an upset loss to LSU at home this week. The Aggies welcome MSU to College Station at noon on ESPN2 and they’re looking for their first win over the Bulldogs in the last eight tries.
It’s an A&M team that returns much experience from a year ago and the Aggies have a total of eight transfers on the team. Arkansas transfer Aaliyah Wilson leads the team with 14.5 points a game, N’dea Jones is a load in the post with 13.3 points and 10.5 rebounds a contest, Ciera Johnson adds more depth down low with 11 points and 8.1 rebounds and they’re also getting 10.1 points a game from Rutgers transfer Alexis Morris.
There’s no Chennedy Carter on the team this season as the former All-american is gone to the WNBA, but the team has started to flourish without her.
“They’re very experienced,” Mccray-penson said. “I think their transfers have really impacted their team. They don’t do anything different. Now they just play team ball. Everything ran through Chennedy Carter last year and now they’re playing team ball and are playing very confident.
“Any time you don’t have that player that draws that attention and demands the ball, it’s good for your team because now you can see what they do. This team is playing better. They have five people on the floor that can score the basketball. They have experience and they have depth.”