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First half dooms Bulldogs in 80-60 blowout against No. 23 Alabama

3rupauk8_400x400by:Robbie Faulk•about 23 hours•

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Mississippi State women's basketball team

To beat a team like No. 23 Alabama, Mississippi State was going to have to put together four quarters of basketball.

Instead, the Bulldogs had a disastrous start to the game and dug themselves a hole. Despite a last-ditch effort in spurts during the second half, it wasn’t enough as the Crimson Tide rolled to a 80-60 victory on Superbowl Sunday.

Scoring just 22 points in the first half and falling behind by 25 by the intermission spelled disaster for the Bulldogs.  

“This game for me was a lot like LSU where in the first half we didn’t score,” coach Sam Purcell said. “We allowed non-scoring opportunities to affect us on the defensive end. You have to tip your hat to Alabama because they shot the ball extremely well. The effort we didn’t give in the first half and them being able to hit shots was the game.”

There were very few things that State did well for the better part of the game and shooting was one of the ultimate reasons the Bulldogs lost the game. Bama shot 57% (30-of-53) for the game while State was an ice cold 35% (22-of-63). The 3-point line was especially unkind to State as the Tide shot 9-of-17 for the game and MSU was just 4-of-18.

Those shooting woes were prevalent in the first quarter as Bama opened up a 10-0 lead on 5-of-5 shooting: holding the Bulldogs to 0-6 in the early going. State turned the ball over six times and couldn’t get shots to fall as Bama controlled a 26-11 lead by the end of the first quarter.

The Bulldogs continued to struggle in the second quarter and Bama dominated with star guard Sarah Ashlee Barker and center Essence Cody to break the game open at 47-22 at the break.

“Because we missed some layups and open shots, I thought it affected us on the defensive end. You’ve got to have another layer of toughness and that’s what I’m fighting with this team,” Purcell said. “We’ve got to get more of an identity of toughness on the defensive end.””

After MSU fell behind by 28 points in the third quarter, the Bulldogs began to fight back into the game. State closed the lead to 57-40 with 3:52 left in the frame. As would be the case in the second half, Bama would push it right back out and made it 66-44 going into the final quarter.

The Bulldogs gave a valiant push in the fourth frame as they cut it to as close as 73-60 on a 3-pointer from Debreasha Powe with 3 minutes left, but the Bulldogs didn’t score another point.

Another issue in the Bulldogs’ loss was the inability to win the rebounding. Bama dominated State 42-25 on the boards including 12 from Barker who logged 19 points and eight assists as well. Cody had 17 points and seven rebounds with Zayy Green earning 12 points and six boards and Aailyah Nye 12 points.

MSU did force 22 Bama turnovers thanks to 16 steals led by Jerkaila Jordan’s six. Jordan was held to just eight points on 1-of-10 shooting with four assists. Powe had a team-high 14 points and the Bulldogs got 12 points and seven rebounds from Madina Okot with 10 points from Destiney McPhaul off the bench.

The Bulldogs had 12 turnovers in the ball game but just two in the second half.

The loss was a big one for a State team trying to push itself into the playoffs. The Bulldogs (17-7, 4-7 SEC) are lacking quality wins and running out of time to get them. The next try comes on Thursday night against a No. 24 Vanderbilt team in Nashville.

Gametime is 8 p.m. next Thursday night.

“It’s one game at a time. We’re playing in the SEC – it’s the toughest conference in the country. We’ve had some great performances where you’re right there,” Purcell said. “When you play in this league, you’ve got to bring it for four quarters. We’ve Vanderbilt who is playing as well as anybody in the country so let’s see if we can bounce back.”

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