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State women's hoops trying to end losing skid on the road at Auburn

3rupauk8_400x400by:Robbie Faulk•02/28/24•

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Mississippi State guard Jerkaila Jordan

At some point, the bleeding must stop for Mississippi State women’s basketball as the regular season end is in sight.

After winning five-straight games and shooting up the SEC standings, the Bulldogs have run into a brick wall. State knocked off Florida, LSU, Kentucky, Texas A&M and Georgia to hit its stride and get to 7-3 in SEC play, but the Bulldogs now stare down the possibility of getting right back to where they were if they can’t win on Thursday night.

State heads to Auburn to take on a tough Tiger team on Thursday with the chance to get back on track. There’s also the chance that the Bulldogs could lose their fifth-straight game after notching five-straight wins.

It won’t be an easy task to get back on the road. Auburn is a team that is fighting for an NCAA Tournament berth in Johnnie Harris’ third season. It’s been a really nice rebuild for the former longtime MSU assistant. The Tigers have not been to the Big Dance since 2018-19 and Harris has improved the program each year since she arrived.

Having taken over a five-win team, Harris went 10-18 her first year but was 16-15 last season with a WNIT second round finish. This year she’s already won 17 games and the Tigers are 6-8 in SEC play.

Crowds have grown and a whole lot of improvement has been made for Harris and her squad as they own a 67-62 win over LSU at Neville Arena already this season and have also beaten Alabama, a team that knocked the Bulldogs off last week by 12.

The team’s defense has been its calling card under Harris as they surrender just 57.5 points per game and hold opponents to 29% from 3-point range. Former Bulldog and Alabama player JaMya Mingo-Young is one of the glue players on the team as she has averaged 9.4 points in her final season with 92 assists on the year and just 42 turnovers. She also has 40 steals.

Honesty Scott-Grayson has been one of the top scorers in the SEC and leads the way with 17.8 points.

The Bulldogs have been more on the offensive side than the Tigers as they average nearly 10 more points but surrender 65 points a contest as defense has been lacking in recent weeks.

Jerkaila Jordan still paces the team with 16.1 points a game and she pulls down 6.0 rebounds while leading the team with 64 steals (2.2 pg).  Jessika Carter is up to 15.2 points and 10.4 rebounds a game this year and has been dominant in MSU’s four-game losing streak with 16.7 points and 14.0 rebounds.

The two teams will clash on SEC Network+ Thursday night with tipoff coming at 7 p.m.

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