Mississippi State
8-3
Mississippi Valley State
2-5
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| Montevallo | 20 | 33 | 53 |
| Mississippi State | 44 | 44 | 88 |
Lady Bulldogs Take Care Of Business Against Delta Devilettes With 88-53 Victory
December 16, 2009 | Women's Basketball
• Official Statistics
• Official Statistics (PDF)
• Postgame Quotes (PDF)
• FREE M2M VIDEO: Coach Fanning-Otis' Postgame Press Conference
• FREE M2M VIDEO: Postgame Player Interviews
STARKVILLE, Miss. - After a sluggish start, the Mississippi State women's basketball team found a second gear, racing past Mississippi Valley State 88-53 in a rare Wednesday afternoon noon start at the Humphrey Coliseum.
With MSU's fourth straight victory, the Lady Bulldogs moved to 8-3 and remained perfect at 7-0 at home this season. For MSU, all seven home victories have been by 29 or more points. MVSU fell to 2-5. MSU has now taken 11 straight victories from their in-state rivals.
The announced crowd of 1,356 included hundreds of elementary school students, who where guests of the Lady Bulldogs. The youngsters were vocal throughout, helping the Lady Bulldogs work through their early-game rust.
"It is a W," MSU head coach Sharon Fanning-Otis said. "We have worked out for seven straight days and the challenge today was a mental one. In the first four or five minutes, we had a chance at 25 of 30 points on transitional baskets. We had turnovers that were not forced. It was a matter of paying more attention to detail."
Five minutes into the contest, MVSU actually held a 5-4 lead. The next five minute stretch proved much different as the Lady Bulldogs pieced together a 17-2 run. Alexis Rack rammed home a pair of 3-point baskets to spark that run.
MSU closed the first half with a 10-2 run over the final 3:31 of play. Thanks to that spree, MSU held a 44-20 lead at halftime.
In the second half, the Lady Bulldogs turned up the defensive pressure, while finding more of a fast-break rhythm. A Tysheka Grimes putback gave MSU a 54-24 advantage with 15:48 left in regulation. The Lady Bulldogs would eventually lead by 37 on three different occasions before closing out the victory.
"In the final half, we did a better job of having focus and paying attention to detail," Fanning-Otis said. "We got a lot of minutes for a lot of different combinations. It was a good team win, as we get ready to play the best team we've faced so far this season."
For the contest, the Lady Bulldogs hit 39 of 63 shots from the field (50.8 percent), 7 of 18 shots from 3-point range (38.9 percent) and 17 of 34 shots from the foul line (50.0 percent). The Devilettes hit 20 of 56 shots from the field (35.7 percent), 6 of 13 shots from 3-point range (46.2 percent) and 7 of 19 shots from the foul line (36.8 percent).
MSU had 18 assists and 17 turnovers, while MVSU had eight assists and 27 turnovers.
Rack paced the Lady Bulldogs with 24 points, including five 3-point baskets. Also in double figures were Chanel Mokango with 18 points, Armelie Lumanu with 12 points and Grimes with 10 points. Grimes had a double-double, also pulling down a team-high 12 rebounds. Lumanu added nine rebounds and a team-high six assists. Mokango had four blocked shots.
Colby Stallings led MVSU with 19 points, while Ka'Neisha Smith had 12 points.
The Lady Bulldogs close the pre-Christmas portion of their schedule with a 1 p.m. start Sunday at 12th-ranked Xavier. MSU returns home to host Alcorn State at 7 p.m. on December 30.
