Led by Naismith award candidate LaToya Thomas, the Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs came out of the gate red-hot Thursday night and took a 13 point lead against third-ranked Tennessee. The Lady Bulldogs would not be able to hold on; however as point guard Kara Lawson hit a jumper just inside the free-throw line as time expired to propel the Lady Vols to a 80-78 win. “I thought it was a very good effort by our basketball team tonight. This was a tough loss. When your players give it all they have like they did tonight, losing a ball game like this hurts,” head coach Sharon Fanning said after the loss.
The Lady Bulldogs led most of the game, taking their first lead almost three minutes into the game at 7-6. MSU’s largest lead of the game came with just over six minutes left to play as Thomas laid in two of her game-high 31 points to give the Lady ‘Dawgs a 37-23 lead. Forward Lyndi Sippel scored as time expired in the first half to give the Lady Bulldogs a 47-34 lead at intermission.
“We just came out stroking it in the first half,” Lyndi Sippel said. Sippel, who scored all five of her points in the first half, was playing in place of injured senior Jennifer Fambrough who is sidelined with a bulging disk in her back.
While the first half belonged to the Lady Bulldogs, the Lady Vols owned the second, outscoring the Maroon and White 46-31 in the final 20 minutes.
“The second half the shots just would not fall,” Sippel said of her team’s shooting woes in the second half. The Lady Bulldogs came out at such a furious pace in the first half, that it seemed to catch up with them in the second, but they were able to recover from Tennessee’s second-half runs.
When it seemed like the Bulldogs couldn’t miss in the first half, the opposite was true in the second. MSU shot a blistering 60 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes, including three of six from behind the three-point arc. State cooled off considerably in the second half, shooting only 39 percent from the field and making only two of eight three-point attempts.
The Lady Vols, on the other hand seemed to be more consistent, shooting an even 50 percent from the field in the first. Tennessee improved on that percentage, shooting 57 percent in the second half, and making three of five from behind the line.
Lady Volunteer freshman Brittany Jackson sparked UT in the second half scoring 14 of her 24 points in the second, including a key three pointer to give the Lady Vols their first lead since the first half. The Lady Vols were led in scoring by Lawson, who poured in 29 points, including UT’s final five that eventually gave them the 80-78 win.
With her 31 points Thursday Thomas went over the 2,000 point plateau for her career, a feat that has only been accomplished by MSU and NBA greats Bailey Howell and Jeff Malone. Thomas only needs 115 points to pass Jeff Malone as MSU’s all-time leading scorer with 2,142 points.