Mississippi State
11-6, 1-3SEC
#19 Georgia
15-3, 4-1SEC
State Women Fall To No. 15 Georgia, 68-51
January 15, 2012 | Women's Basketball
STARKVILLE, Miss. -Mississippi State could not build on its first Southeastern Conference women's basketball victory of the season. The Lady Bulldogs hung tough and competed for 40 minutes, before falling to No. 19 Georgia 68-51 Sunday afternoon in the Humphrey Coliseum.
With the defeat, MSU fell to 11-6 overall and 1-3 in league play. Georgia won its second straight in the series, while moving to 15-3 overall and 4-1 in league play.
The homestanding Lady Bulldogs, playing in front of a number of basketball alumni, had a solid offensive afternoon, hitting on a season second-best 46 percent of its shots from the field. However, the hosts were partially done in by 22 turnovers and a solid all-around game from Georgia's Anne Marie Armstrong, who poured in a game-high 22 points.
"In the first half we were shooting 50 percent from the field and our leading scorer (Diamber Johnson) had not even scored," MSU head coach Sharon Fanning-Otis said. "We go in to the half with this, and we think if we play hard and make shots, we are back into this ballgame. For us, to win more games we have to play tougher. We just have to learn from this game and get better. Turnovers and offensive rebounds were the two stats that hurt us the most today."
Georgia scored the first five points of the game and never trailed in the activity. The guests forced 13 first-half turnovers, led by as many as 12 in the first half before jumping out to a 34-26 advantage at the intermission.
Georgia again scored the first five points of the second half and the Maroon and White could not knock the spread into single digits for the remainder of the contest.
Georgia's defense was extremely effective on Johnson, the SEC's leading scorer. Johnson did tally 10 points, giving her 15 contests in double figures this season. However, the senior guard did not score her first point until 8:38 remained in the contest. Her 10 points did push Johnson past the 900-point mark, making her the 21st Lady Bulldog to reach that mark.
"They are a very athletic team," Fanning-Otis said. "We tried to take away some of their defensive pressure by trying to get the ball to our cutters off the drive. We could have taken more effective shots in the first half, but we were getting in too deep."
The guests parlayed the early 5-0 start into a 15-6 lead on a jumper by Armstrong with 13:51 left in the half. The lead moved to 10 at 20-10 on a jumper by Jasmine Hassell. Solid play by Shamia Robinson and Kendra Grant helped MSU close within four with six straight points.
Georgia pushed the lead back out to 11 twice before moving into halftime with the 34-26 advantage. While the Lady Bulldogs fought hard in the second half, no sustained run could get the home team back in the contest.
For the contest, MSU hit 23 of 50 shots from the field (46.0 percent), 2 of 11 shots from 3-point range (18.2 percent) and 3 of 4 shots from the foul line (75.0 percent). UGA hit 30 of 71 shots from the field (42.3 percent), 5 of 13 shots from 3-point range (38.5 percent) and 3 of 5 shots from the foul line (60.0 percent).
UGA held a 40-29 rebounding advantage. MSU had 11 assists and 22 turnovers, while UGA had nine assists and 15 turnovers.
Porsha Porter led MSU in scoring with 12 points. Grant and Johnson each added 10 points. Grant now has double-figures in back-to-back games. Martha Alwal pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds. Alwal also added four blocked shots, giving her 48 for the season, which is third in a single-season all-time at MSU.
Georgia received 17 points from Khaalidah Miller and 12 points from Hassell. Armstrong and Hassell each had nine rebounds, both narrowly missing a double-double.
MSU visits Ole Miss at 7 p.m. Thursday.
