State survives rally from Utah, move to 7-0 with 66-62 victory in Cayman Islands
A 24-point lead vanished for Mississippi State on Thanksgiving night as the Bulldogs saw a dominant first half erased by Utah.
The Utes took a 60-59 lead on a 3-pointer from Kennady McQueen with 1:23 remaining and the Bulldogs looked dead in the water. A three-point play from Madina Okot with 28 seconds left brought them life again and State survived a 66-62 ball game in the Cayman Islands Classic.
From the best half of the season to the worst, State was lucky to find itself in the win column. The Bulldogs saw a 21-point halftime lead slowly dwindle as it dropped to 54-37 and then the Utes outscored State 23-5 for most of the fourth quarter to get that lead.
Coach Sam Purcell saw his team buckle down in the final 30 seconds, however. After Denim Deshields took a charge on a made bucket, Okot corralled an offensive board on the other end and stuck it back for the lead and the foul.
State would score seven of the final nine points thanks to free throws that followed and the Bulldogs were able to survive.
“We’ve got to fail fast and learn quick,” Purcell said on the postgame radio. “Utah is one of the top scoring teams in the country. Powe was in the huddle saying we’re not going to lose the game, and we went and did it. I let my temperament get the best of us and I learned a lot. I could have done a lot better keeping some poise.”
Massive first half leads to rollercoaster final quarters
Thanks to that big first half, most of the numbers looked good throughout the game for the Bulldogs until a collapse in the fourth quarter. State trailed 5-0 in the first two possessions and then outscored the Utes 26-6 the rest of the first quarter to build a lead.
That advantage got all the way up to 24 in the second quarter and it was 43-22 at the break.
State shot over 50% most of the game but finished at 46% on 24-of-52 makes. The Bulldogs were 7-of-19 from three. The key to the game was the State defense. That unit continues to play good basketball as it held a Utah team that makes 40% of its 3-point shots to 8-of-32 from long range.
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MSU won the rebounding 38-29 and had 18 assists, but the Bulldogs had 22 turnovers. Those turns would keep the Utes in the ball game until the end.
“We’ve got to fix these turnovers,” Purcell said. “I love this team, but can you imagine if we get this down to 11 (turnovers) how special this team could be?”
Okot led the team in scoring with 15 points and had eight rebounds. Debreasha Powe had 13 points on 4-of-7 3-point shooting with 12 of those points coming in the first half. She got a big free throw in the final possession to seal the game.
Eniya Russell finished with 13 points in the win and Denim Deshields had six points and six assists.
The win kept State undefeated at 7-0 and the Bulldogs will try to finish the trip to the Cayman Islands with a Friday evening matchup against South Florida (4-3). The Bulls have played a brutal schedule to this point with top 25 losses to UConn and Louisville and a defeat to Vanderbilt as well. After the State game, USF will play TCU on Saturday.
“They’ve played UConn and should have beat Louisville. They’ve been prepping for five days so it’s going to be who can be tough and have the recovery because we’re going to be tested (Friday).”
Game time on Friday night is set for 6:30 p.m. The game can be seen on a subscription with FloCollege.
