Mississippi State announces return of two key women's hoops players
After two weeks’ worth of bad news for Sam Purcell’s Mississippi State women’s basketball team, the Bulldogs appear to have finally stopped the bleeding.
State had eight players enter the transfer portal over the course of a couple of weeks and are down to just three returning players from this past year’s squad. The good news is that it appears that two of them have locked in their return for a final season.
The Bulldog program announced that senior guards Destiney McPhaul and Chandler Prater will both be returning for their last year. Both were set to be big pieces in 2025-26 regardless, but now they appear to be the cornerstones as Purcell has to rebuild the roster.
McPhaul, Prater brings solid starting point in massive rebuild for Purcell
McPhaul is the most dynamic of the two and had some flashy moments during her first year on campus. A Philadelphia, Pa., McPhaul was a first-team All-American at Northwest Florida State College and led her team to back-to-back national championship games.
As a sophomore, McPhaul averaged 14.4 points per game and 36% from three-point range and 82% from the free throw line. She would translate that to the SEC this season as she averaged 8.1 points, 2.5 assists and 2.7 rebounds per game in 22.2 minutes. McPhaul shot 47% from the field, 38% from three and 82% from the free throw line.
Despite coming off the bench all season, McPhaul had nine games in double digits scoring with her best performance being 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting against Missouri when she shot 4-of-5 from three.
Prater is an equally good returnee for the Bulldogs and was playing her best basketball later in the year when she entered the starting lineup. Prater started in 12 of the last 14 games this season and averaged 6.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 88% free throw shooting on the season.
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After starting her basketball career at Kansas, Prater transferred to Oklahoma State for the 2023-24 season before tearing her Achilles in non-conference play. Prater looked like a player returning to form by midway through SEC play and she averaged 7.4 points against conference opponents.
While not announced yet, State is currently also expected to retain redshirt sophomore center Rocio Jimenez. The Dominican Republic native missed her first season due to a torn ACL and didn’t log any minutes this season as she continued to rehab.
The Bulldogs are in the middle of a second-straight roster rebuild. Last offseason, State returned just four players from the roster. After transfers from starters Denim DeShields, Madina Okot and DeBreasha Powe along with reserve Quanirah Montague and four others, MSU was down to three players.
Purcell has already landed one transfer portal player in former Auburn and Ole Miss forward Kharyssa Richardson and the coach is bringing in a top 10 signing class with high school standouts Nataliyah Gray, Madison Francis and Jaylah Lampley. That leaves a potential eight available slots from the portal if Purcell chooses to fill the roster.
