STARKVILLE – After a grueling SEC opening slate, Mississippi State’s women needed a get-right opportunity. The Bulldogs got one on Thursday and took full advantage.
Mississippi State used a dominant second quarter and multiple double-digit scorers to top Auburn 96-56 at the Humphrey Coliseum.
“Shout out to my team,” Bulldogs coach Sam Purcell said. “We talk about it all the time. Fall down seven, get back up eight, so what a night to get back up.”
MSU (16-5, 3-4) has lost four of its first six SEC games. Four of those games have been against top 15 teams, and the last loss came to Ole Miss on Sunday at home. That start has the Bulldogs sitting 11th in the conference standings.
Thursday’s contest did not come without its lumps. Turnovers were once again an issue for State (their 16.5 turnovers per game are the fifth most in the SEC), as the team had 10 of them in the first quarter. That combined with eight points from Auburn’s Deyona Gaston had the Tigers (10-10, 1-6) trailing by just two after one quarter.
Once the second quarter started, however, Mississippi State kicked it into high gear.
After the teams traded twos, the Bulldogs rattled off a 24-0 run, which included field goals from seven different players. State then ended the period on a 7-0 run, taking a 48-17 lead into halftime.
“I think they were just really focused in and we got shot attempts,” Purcell said of the team’s second quarter. “Like I’ve always told them, it’s scary how good this team could be.”
The Bulldogs were also able to clean up the turnovers, having nine the rest of the game. The adjustment was a result of hard work being put in each of the last three days in practice.
“We’ve obviously seen how having turnovers has affected us these past few games. I think that definitely gave us a confidence booster,” Denim DeShields said. “We know what we’re capable of, and we know that our achilles heel has been turnovers, so to just see that we can make an adjustment that quick was really helpful for us.”
A complete effort was a theme for Mississippi State. The Bulldogs had five players with at least 13 points. Jerkaila Jordan and Eniya Russell led the way with 15 each. For DeShields, the deep box score came from selflessness.
“I think that it was at times hard to recognize the hot hand, because we were all kind of on point tonight, which is what we love to see,” she said. “We know we have weapons, one through five, and each game might be a different person who is at the top of the box score, but tonight, we all had it going, so it was great to get that after two hard losses.”
DeShields had a season-high 13 points.
The schedule does lighten up the rest of the way. Of the Bulldogs’ nine remaining regular season opponents, three are ranked as of Thursday.
As the rest of the regular season unfolds, Purcell wants to continue to see teamwork.
“Everybody’s got to be willing to do the little things and believe in each other,” he said. “And if we can shut out the outside noise and know what the truth is in this locker room, then we could do special things.”
However, with the SEC still being the deep conference that it is, Mississippi State will need to bring its best every day in order to find consistency.
“It comes from practice to when we’re together and just being all in and being for each other, because we need each other all the time,” Chandler Prater said. “It can be a really hard league, and not everybody’s gonna have their best night, so just staying together and leaning on our coaching staff to lead us in the right way is really going to take us a long way, because we got the talent. It’s just going to take that grind.”
Mississippi State returns to the hardwood on Monday, when it travels to face Missouri. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. on the SEC Network.
