Bulldogs hold on to defeat Aggies on the home court
Close games at home have become a thing for Mississippi State since the start of Southeastern Conference play, but it doesn't seem to bother this Bulldog team one bit.
After losing the first two SEC home games against Ole Miss and South Carolina and doing so with the game being in single digits in the final frame, MSU continues to find ways to win the close ones now. The Bulldogs had a two-point lead in the fourth quarter against Texas A&M on Sunday before hitting clutch free throws down the stretch and winning a 70-62 game over the Aggies.
It was the third win this week for the Bulldogs after knocking off Tennessee on Monday, Florida on the road Thursday and then the Aggies. After losing two rough outings to Ole Miss and Georgia, the Bulldogs seem to be coming together at the right time.
“Two weeks ago, we're sitting here with two bad losses and a bad taste in our mouths,” Purcell said. “We have an off week where we go old school and put out some chairs and have some conversations. We talked and (the players) said we came here for something special and don't want to be denied. I'm the luckiest coach in the world because they're together.”
It's becoming a common theme now for MSU to have multiple players step up and provide big minutes and it's not always the usual suspects every game. On Sunday, it was two of the biggest stars in Anastasia Hayes and Jessika Carter.
Hayes had 17 points for the Bulldogs on an efficient 7-of-10 shooting with five rebounds, four assists and three steals. Carter was fairly dominant at times in the paint finishing with 17 points as well and nine rebounds. Ahlana Smith was also big scoring 13 points and bringing down seven rebounds with three assists in 35 minutes.
State was strong on the inside as MSU kept a depleted Aggie roster in foul trouble and dominated the rebounding 40-26.
The Bulldogs came out
on fire on Sunday afternoon as they built a 10-0 lead before the Aggies could even blink, but that start was about as much cushion as the home team had all day as State struggled to maintain full control of the game.
In fact, Texas A&M got things back in order in that first frame as it cut the lead to 14-11 with 1 minute to go. The Bulldogs scored six points in that last minute to push the lead back out to 20-11 at the end of the quarter and went up as much as 12 points in the second. The up and down play kept the Aggies in the game, however, as they cut the lead to 35-32 at the halftime break.
In a back and forth third quarter, that lead didn't grow much. MSU added a point to the lead at 5248 and got Texas A&M in further foul trouble, but it was going to continue to be a battle in the fourth.
In the end, the Bulldogs' ability to get the stops on defense and hit free throws made all the difference. MSU was 21-of-27 from the free-throw line in the game, but 14-of-16 came in the final frame to clinch yet another close win. Denae Carter also came up with five of her eight points in the final quarter and also finished with five rebounds in 25 minutes.
“I think the main thing is practice,” Smith said. “We practice free throws and practice free throws under pressure. We know that we've got to knock free throws down. Sometimes the game might come down to a free throw or two. We have a lot of emphasis on that and make sure we put up a lot of free throws in practice.”
Shots were fairly even between the two teams with the Aggies shooting 45% (25-of-56) and State 42% (23-of-55). The Bulldogs were more efficient from 3-point range hitting 3-of-8 while the Aggies went 5-of-18. State scored 22 points off of 16 Texas A&M turnovers, too, while the visitors managed just eight points on 15 turns from the Bulldogs.
With the win, State is now 18-7 this year and 7-5 in SEC play. It's the most wins overall and in the conference since 201920. The team will go for a fourth-straight win on Thursday when they travel to Columbia, Mo., to take on the Missouri Tigers.
Getting a win will get the team one game closer to locking up an NCAA Tournament bid and, according to the players, it's a goal that's talked about routinely within the team. They're all locked in to make a run.
“I feel like we've come together, we're trusting each other more,” Hayes said. “We're all bought in, we want to win and we're playing hard.
“(Postseason) is where we're trying to go. That's where we're trying to make it to. The seniors, this is our last go around so that's where we're trying to go.”