This season’s women’s basketball version of the Egg Bowl ended in a draw Thursday night when the Lady Bulldogs fell short of topping Ole Miss by the score of 76-71.
Just a few weeks earlier, MSU (6-14, 1-6 SEC) topped the Rebels (12-7, 2-4 SEC) in Oxford, 70-59. This game, however, was everything a rivalry game should be, with eight lead-changes and four ties. The Bulldogs led at halftime 35-32 and didn’t trail Ole Miss until about six minutes remained in the game.
The Rebels then dominated, keeping the Dawgs’ losing streak alive, now at five games.
“We knew coming into the game they would be pumped up,” MSU freshman guard Heather Hollis said. “It was a harsh loss for them [in Oxford] and a good win for us that helped us turn the corner. Even though we have not won a lot of games, we have come together as a team.”
Ole Miss’s first lead of the game came at 15:10 in the first half when Marneshia Richard had the ball stolen from her and Armintie Price drained a jumper. With the score then at 11-10, the game went back-and-forth between the intrastate rivals.
Freshman Robin Porter had a solid first half, tallying 11 points. She put MSU back on top with a three-pointer with 9:50 to go in the half. However, neither team could seem to pull away with a commanding lead. Ole Miss and MSU traded punch for punch, shot for shot and foul for foul.
The bad blood between the two schools was apparent with the sloppy play and the number of fouls committed by both squads. At the end of the first half, MSU was on top 35-32.
MSU also won the team foul battle, committing eight, compared to Ole Miss’s 11. Behind the proficient shooting of Heather Hollis, Robin Porter, Miayorka Johnson and Marneshia Richard, the Bulldogs were able to stretch out their lead in the second half to as much as nine before the Rebs started to chip away at it.
“In the second half our shots just stopped falling,” Porter said. “They put a little bit more pressure on us and slowed us down.”
Senior leader Blessing Chekwa, who contributed seven points of her own, took herself out of the game with leg cramps and knee problems. According to head coach Sharon Fanning, Chekwa was also ill coming into the game.
“Defensively, when Blessing went out of the game, that was a different look,” said Fanning, who’s still looking for her 500th win after the Lady Bulldogs lost 74-44 to Auburn Sunday. “We did not guard them; they took a couple of three-point shots and made them. We allowed penetration and put them on the line. When they got to the line, they made a better percentage there.”
The Rebels displayed a “no-quit” mentality as Ashley Johnson and Armintie Price began to rally the troops with free throws and three pointers, mounting a 16-9 run, including nine straight points.
It took the Rebels until 6:08 remained in the game to finally retake the lead with a three-pointer by Ashley Johnson, who finished the game with 19.
Ole Miss then ran away with the game, leading the Dawgs by as much as eight after a 66-66 tie at the 3:50 mark. Despite late efforts to foul and knock the Rebels off course, the Dawgs fell short.
Three MSU freshmen guards finished the rivalry game in double digits: Heather Hollis with 15, Marneshia Richard with 10, and Robin Porter with 19, which tied her career single-game high.
The loss gave MSU its fifth straight loss on the season, all of them being SEC losses. State’s loss at Auburn on Sunday pushed its SEC redord to 1-7.
“We have to get better position and let them make mistakes,” Fanning said. “We just did not guard hard enough. A couple of three-point shots made the difference in the game.”