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throughout practice).”
On the other end, Missouri’s Sophie Cunningham was a major problem for the Bulldogs. The ALL-SEC standout had 24 points and six rebounds.
“I would say that (Danberry) was not good on both ends because we really struggled defending (Cunningham),” Schaefer said. the week (at “There were way too many open shots that we allowed them to create and we gave up a bunch of layups. That’s uncharacteristic.”
MSU (22-2, 10-1) had a battle on its hands from the very beginning with the pesky Tigers as the Bulldogs led just 17-12 at the end of the first quarter and that lead shrunk to 35-34 at the half. Cunningham had 13 points at the half to help carry Missouri.
In the third, things weren’t going right for State. Leading scorer Anriel Howard went out of the game with her fourth foul and the Tigers began to attack on the offensive end. The Tigers hit 8-of10 shots and 4-of-5 from 3-point range closing the quarter with a buzzer-beating lay in to take the 54-53 lead.
The fourth quarter brought more of the same for the Bulldogs. State continued to miss some easy shots around the rim and turned the basketball over and the Tigers hit big shots taking their lead to six points at 6761 with 2 minutes left.
Center Cierra Porter had sat the majority of the second half with foul trouble but came up big when she needed to as she knocked down a dagger 3-pointer with less than 1 minute to go to take a one possession game to two possessions and seal the win.
MSU’S only constant on the offensive end all night was Howard, who poured in 21 points but she did it in 27 minutes as foul trouble kept her on the bench and ultimately ended her night in the final minutes as she fouled out.
The Bulldogs also had double figures from Teaira Mccowan, but she was 4-for11 from the field. She had 13 rebounds but could never get into a groove on the offensive end as the Tigers collapsed in on her when she caught the ball in the post.
Andra Espinoza-hunter had 12 points and Bre’amber Scott had 10 points in the loss.
As MSU goes back to the drawing board, the margin for error to win an SEC title is shrinking as South Carolina continues to hold serve on its end. The Bulldogs head to No. 18 Texas A&M on Sunday for a gut-check game against the Aggies as they try to get back on track.
As far as Thursday was concerned, Schaefer said MSU just wasn’t locked in like it needed to be.
“I just felt like our whole team had a lack of focus,” Schaefer said. “I saw it in shoot around. We’ve got some things happening and obviously tonight it showed.”