Women’s Basketball Nearly Stuns No. 1 South Carolina

Sunday, January 8

Starkville

12:00 PM

Mississippi State

12-5,1-3SEC

South Carolina

16-0,4-0SEC

South Carolina

Mississippi St.

Women’s Basketball Nearly Stuns No. 1 South Carolina

January 08, 2023 | Women's Basketball

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By: Kelly Shipp, Assistant Director/Communications

STARKVILLE – Mississippi State women's basketball gave the No. 1 ranked South Carolina Gamecocks all they could handle Sunday, falling 58-51 in front of a crowd of over 5,700. The loss drops the Bulldogs to 12-5 on the year and 1-3 in the SEC.

The Bulldogs continued their elite defense play on Sunday, holding South Carolina to their lowest point total of the season (58), despite the Gamecocks averaging over 85 points per game. This was just the third time this season that the Gamecocks won by single digits. This was the fewest points scored by South Carolina in an SEC game since scoring 57 against Texas A&M on Feb. 28, 2021.

Head coach Sam Purcell continues to preach being an elite defensive unit, and once again, one of the best defenses in the nation was on full display. State held the Gamecocks to their lowest field goal percentage this season (30.3%) and their sixth-lowest total from behind the arc (22%, 4-for-18). State out-blocked the Gamecocks 7-5, with Jessika Carter leading the way with 4 blocked shots. Carter currently leads the SEC in blocked shots.

In the second half, the Gamecocks were held to just 26 points, the lowest in a half this season, and just the second time South Carolina was held to 26 points in a half. State outscored South Carolina 32-28 in the paint. State's 32 paint points are the second-most that SC has allowed this season. They gave up 40 to Stanford.

JerKaila Jordan led the Bulldogs with 13 points, five rebounds, and three assists. Following closely behind was Jessika Carter with 11 points and nine rebounds, her fifth consecutive game scoring in double digits. Carter scored nine of her 11 points in the fourth quarter.

Turning Point
With momentum squarely on the side of the Bulldogs in the third quarter and State on an 8-0 run, cutting the deficit to just one (37-36); momentum shifted towards South Carolina as five straight fouls were called on MSU, zero on the Gamecocks, in the final 2:32 of the third. Due to all the stoppage of play during that stretch, South Carolina was able to go on a 6-0 run and extend their lead to seven entering the final quarter.

In the contest, South Carolina won the free throw attempts battle by a staggering 24-5 margin.

Game Notes
• MSU held South Carolina to just 12 points in the first quarter, the fourth fewest points this season scored in the opening quarter.
• Just the fourth time this season that South Carolina has not led after the first quarter
• MSU held SC to 11 points in the third quarter. Both teams scored 15 in the fourth.
• For the third time this season, SC only won by single digits; Stanford lost by five, and UCLA lost by nine
• Zia Cooke shot just 23% from the field, which was her second-lowest of the season
• Aliyah Boston shot 38% from the floor, which was her third-lowest of the season
• Gamecocks only had 20 made field goals, the fewest of the season
• MSU forced 14 TO against South Carolina, which is the 7th highest for SC this season
• Gamecocks only had 11 assists, the fourth-lowest total by them this season (MSU had 12)

Quoting Coach Purcell
Opening Statements
"First and foremost, what a great game for women's basketball. An opportunity to play on prime time tv, ESPN 2, South Carolina vs. Mississippi State. I took this job for the excitement, for moments like this. Never forget at Louisville watching tv like everybody else on national television with these moments, and this game came up; that was the game to watch. I mentioned earlier this week I have so much respect for Dawn Staley. The hours and time she put into the game, what a class act. The fact that she got t-shirts made for Mike Leach again just speaks about her, what a special person she is, and the things she is doing for women's basketball. And the kids at South Carolina, they are good kids. A lot of storylines that are out there, they never talk about how great kids they are and what they are bringing to the women's game. But at the same time, I got to give a lot of love to my team. I have some great young women too. They are battling and fighting. I've been bringing it up the last two weeks, don't give up on them. They are playing their hearts out. They are proud to put on that Mississippi State jersey. It's been a tough stretch against the top half. It's a great time to have an off week. Clean up some of the little things and see if we can bottle up what we are doing well and, most importantly, bounce back. But again, thank you to our crowd. Thank you to Dawn for wearing those shirts. Thank you, ESPN, for having the opportunity to play on the bright lights on the big stage."

On holding South Carolina to their lowest points
"Obviously, your goal was to win this game but you're measuring yourself against a program coming off a national title and they have so many players returning from last year and they have been here for four years now. Is this a massive step forward for your team to be able to hold them to their lowest point total in the fight from start to finish?`100% You know I am not one to blaze a war on pages, but you have to face the facts. As much as I talk about looking in the mirror for what we got to do better, you got to look at what we are doing well. And that is what I told them at half at the end of the game, "Y'all don't let our circle break" there is a point there at the end of the first quarter I told them to lock arms because that is what happened at Ole Miss. We didn't lock arms. We weren't the tougher team, and it hurts me to say, but Ole Miss was tougher in the fourth quarter. Tennessee, I thought we were tough, but we didn't box out, so I told them going we got two ways going into this game, point fingers and let other voices tell us what our team needs to do, or else we could look to the left and the right and figure out what we got to do, and I thought we did that tonight."

Quoting Jessika Carter
On the defensive gameplan
"With this game, we just wanted to make them shoot outside shots, so we can box out and get the rebound. I feel like we executed that very well. I feel like, for us, for [Coach Sam Purcell] to put in a new defense, we did what he wanted us to do."

Quoting Debreasha Powe
On this game instilling confidence going forward
"For sure. We keep telling ourselves [that] we're going to keep climbing this mountain. We say we have to stick together, and that's what we're doing. We're actually really proud of [each other], so I feel like if we stick together and keep coming to the gym and working hard, we're going to be just fine."

Up Next
The Bulldogs will be off until next Sunday, Jan. 15, when they travel to Bryan-College Station, Texas, to take on Texas A&M. The Bulldogs and Aggies will tip-off at 2 p.m. CT.

For the most up-to-date information on the Bulldogs, follow MSU women's basketball on Twitter, like them on Facebook, and join them on Instagram by searching for "HailStateWBK.

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