Mississippi State defeated the Alabama Lady Crimson Tide Thursday night with a final score of 72-59, improving Mississippi State’s record over Alabama to 7-4 in the last 11 meetings, including four wins at the Humphrey Coliseum during the stretch.With more than nine minutes left in the first half, Lady Bulldogs freshman Mary Kathryn Govero hit three consecutive shots to jumpstart an 18-9 run that the Tide was unable to overcome.
“I hit a lot of shots in practice this week and it built my confidence up, so I wasn’t really thinking about it, just throwing shots,” Govero said.
The Lady Bulldogs’ defense held strong alongside a forceful offensive effort to hold the lead for most of the first half. In the opening 10 minutes, neither team could sustain a lead.
With the score tied at 6-6 at the 16-minute mark, Mississippi State went on a 5-0 run to take the lead. After the Crimson Tide cut the score to 15-12 with less than 11 minutes to play in the period, Alabama committed four straight turnovers, which led to the 18-9 Mississippi State run.
“They started coming back, but we got momentum and took control of the game,” junior guard Robin Porter said. “I played hard.Every game you want to win, and I’m a competitive person so I want to win. Stay together, play as a team and keep each other up.”
The Lady Bulldogs built their lead to 33-21 going into halftime.
“The first half of the game we shared the ball and took care of the ball,” Lady Bulldogs head coach Sharon Fanning said. “Offensive rebounds were very important. Alabama plays hard and scraps for 40 minutes.”
Mississippi State withstood a strong effort by the Tide in the second half, as Alabama managed to cut into the Mississippi State lead.
Alabama outscored the Lady Bulldogs 19-10 during the beginning of the period, taking the score to 43-40 with just under 13 minutes left in the game.
The Lady Bulldogs fought back as Rack hit a 3-point basket at the 9:12 mark of the period, extending Mississippi State’s lead to six at 52-46.
That would be as close as Alabama could get the rest of the way, as the Lady Bulldogs took a 72-59 win over Alabama.
Mississippi State shot about 47 percent in the second half, while holding Alabama to just six free-throw attempts for the night. The Lady Bulldogs also forced 26 Alabama turnovers, scoring 29 points off those miscues.
The Lady Bulldogs had four players score in double figures. Rack led all scorers with 19 points off of 5-of-8 shooting from behind the 3-point line.
Junior forward Robin Porter added a season-high 14 points, while collecting a career-high five blocks on the night, tying her for second place on the single game all-time list.
Grimes brought down career-high 15 rebounds to go with her 8 points. With six assists in the game, junior guard Marneshia Richard moved into ninth place on the MSU career assist list with 281.
On Sunday afternoon, Mississippi State could not overcome a prolonged offensive struggle in the first half of play against the Auburn Lady Tigers.
The Lady Bulldogs managed only two points during a seven-minute stretch as the home standing Auburn Lady Tigers took a 16-2 run. From there, Auburn made its way to a 68-42 victory at Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum.
The Lady Bulldogs fell to 14-8 overall and 2-4 in Southeastern Conference play. Mississippi State is now without a win in four conference road games. Auburn won its third straight from Mississippi State, while moving to 15-6 overall and 3-3 in league play.
Both teams started hot, with Alexis Rack hitting a lay-up to give the Lady Bulldogs an 8-7 lead with 16:18 left in the first half.
From there, only Auburn remained on top. During the next seven minutes, the Lady Tigers put together a 16-2 run. During that stretch, the Lady Bulldogs had back-to-back turnovers before scoring.
After cutting the Auburn lead to 11-10, the Lady Bulldogs missed seven straight shots from the floor.
In the second half, the Lady Bulldogs again could not get the offense untracked. A basket by Richard was Mississippi State’s lone score in the first eleven minutes of the second half.
Back-to-back 3-point plays then allowed Auburn to bolt to a 30-point advantage at 56-26 with 7:22 remaining. Auburn eventually led by as many as 31, while Mississippi State got no closer than the final margin the remainder of the way.
The Lady Bulldogs hit 17 of 67 shots from the field for 25.4 percent. The Lady Bulldogs were 1-of-12 from 3-point range and 7-of-8 at the free throw line.
Cassie Moore led Auburn with a career-high 17 points. DeWanna Bonner added 15 points and 13 rebounds, while Sherell Hobbs scored 12 points.
Richard led MSU with 12 points, while Porter and Govero each had 10 points. Tysheka Grimes led the Lady Bulldogs with 8 rebounds.
“As a basketball team our objective, from just looking inside, we have to focus on ourselves. We also need to focus on consistency and better work ethic,” Fanning said. “You have to give credit to Auburn. Auburn is an aggressive team. We had some really good defensive possessions whether they were man, a half-court press, or just a base defense.