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USC dismantles Bulldogs in second round of the tournament, 96-59

3rupauk8_400x400by:Robbie Faulk•about 22 hours•

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Photo by Mississippi State Athletics

It was a nightmare of a game for Mississippi State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Monday night.

The Bulldogs ran into a buzzsaw in Los Angeles against No. 1 seed USC as the Trojans dominated every aspect of the ball game. A 28-8 first quarter set the tone for what was a 96-59 beatdown that ended the Bulldogs’ season short of the Sweet 16.

“When you play a team like this, you don’t want to get punched in the face. Next thing you know, it’s 11-0,” coach Sam Purcell said. “I thought they continued to start cooking and start playing.”

All-American and Big Ten Player of the Year JuJu Watkins fell to the floor midway through the first quarter as the lead climbed for the Trojans and would leave the game for good. Watkins was carried off the floor by trainers with an apparent knee injury and her status moving forward was not known by the end of the game.

In her absence, it was the KiKi Iriafen show. Another Trojan All-American, Iriafen had a career game with 36 points on 16-of-22 shooting and nine rebounds. The Bulldogs had no answer for Iriafen’s size and athleticism, and she would keep the team locked in despite the loss of Watkins.

The Trojans shot an efficient 52% (35-of-67) and made 8-of-24 three-pointers. What was the most impressive of the offensive performance would be the Trojans dishing out 29 assists on 35 made shots.

Efficiency on the offensive end was there early for the Trojans. For the Bulldogs, it was the opposite.

State started the game shooting 1-for-13 from the field and didn’t score for 4 minutes as USC would build the lead to 17-2. By the end of the quarter, it was 28-8 and State was in a hole that it couldn’t dig out of the rest of those game.

The Bulldogs went on a 9-0 run in the middle of the second quarter to cut the lead down to 15, but that lead grew back over 20 points. It was 50-27 at the break.

It was a poor offensive game for the Bulldogs as they finished 20-of-64 (31%) and 3-of-11 from three. State had 20 turnovers and USC scored 27 points off of those. The Bulldogs were outrebounded 42-34 and got outscored 46-28 in the paint.

Jerkaila Jordan finished her career with 17 points on 6-of-24 shooting and had six rebounds. Eniya Russell finished out her tenure at State scoring 11 points on 3-of-13 and Destiney McPhaul had 10 points on 2-of-7 and 6-of-6 makes from the free throw line.

The Bulldogs finished out the season 22-12 in Purcell’s third year on the job. It was his second NCAA Tournament appearance and his third season of 20 or more wins. He’s the first coach in MSU history to accomplish either of those things in his first three years.

“We didn’t want this to end,” Purcell said. “You put a team together in the transfer portal and we were playing our best basketball at the right time. We just didn’t play out best tonight.”

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