Iowa controlled the scoring for most of the afternoon as the Lady Bulldogs were taken down by the Lady Hawkeyes in the Cancun Challenge in Cancun, Mexico for a 60-54 first loss of the season on Thanksgiving Day.In the first half of play, there were four ties, and Iowa jumped out on top 3-1 early in the period. The team extended the lead out to five before the Lady Bulldogs got a three-point basket from sophomore Alexis Rack that tied the game at 10 with 13:49 left in the period. After trading baskets and the game’s fourth tie, Iowa turned out a 5-0 run to jump out by five with less than 10 minutes remaining in the half. Junior guard Robin Porter’s jumper at 5:14 cut the Hawkeye lead to just one point, but Iowa led by 25-21 at the half.
During the second half of play, Iowa came out and extended its lead to eight points on a pair of buckets from Wendy Ausdemore and Kristi Smith. State responded with shots from senior forward Imesia Jackson and sophomore forward Tysheka Grimes, but the Hawkeyes still had a 12 point lead with just 11:34 remaining in the game.
MSU fought back hard to take the lead as they slowly chipped away on scores from Grimes and Jackson. With a free-throw shot at 8:26 left, the Lady Bulldogs had rallied to just a one-point deficit. State stayed within that margin with 6:20 remaining after a three-point shot from Porter, but the Lady Hawkeyes bounced back out a nine-point lead with less than two minutes left in the game. State closed to within four before Iowa took control and grabbed the 60-54 win.
Jackson and Grimes each scored 10 points for MSU while Rack and junior guard Marneshia Richard added nine.
Richard also reached her milestone 500th career point with her first bucket against Iowa. Richard and Porter are the only current Lady Bulldogs to have reached the milestone.
After a tough loss to Iowa, the Lady Bulldogs’ tournament got only more challenging as they faced No. 10 Oklahoma in their next contest.
Oklahoma started off with a 9-0 run to start the game and continued to control the floor as the Lady Sooners (2-2) defeated the Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs by an 88-73 score on Friday.
The Lady Sooners took the lead early on in the game and never surrendered it. Oklahoma jumped out by 20 during the first period, but Mississippi State was only down by nine at the half. MSU held tight during the second period but never got over the hump as the Lady Sooners took the win.
Jackson led the Lady Bulldogs with her fourth career double-double. She achieved a season-high 18 points, shot a perfect 8-of-8 from the charity stripe and brought down 10 boards.
“We cannot let a couple of bad games bring us down,” Porter said. “We can not dwell on a loss. We must keep moving.”
The Lady Bulldogs returned to winning ways on Tuesday night with a dominating 85-56 victory over the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
Both teams went back and forth during the first ten minutes of play. Leading by a score of 16-15 with less than 12 minutes to play in the half, the Lady Bulldogs distanced themselves from the Lady Lions.
State outscored Arkansas Pine-Bluff 31-12 during the final 10 minutes of the opening period, giving Mississippi State a 47-27 lead at the intermission, its largest lead of the half.
The Lady Bulldogs continued to increase their lead during the second half, using defense and shooting to speed past the Lady Lions.
The Lady Bulldogs had five players in double digits for the game. Jackson tallied her second consecutive double-double, the fifth of her career, with 12 points and 11 boards. Porter led Mississippi State in scoring with 13 points, while Grimes grabbed 11 points.
Jackson said she was pleased the team was able to rebound from the tough losses in the Cancun Challenge.
“We did really good tonight,” Jackson said. “I was really happy.”
Rack ended the game with 12 points, shooting 4-of-5 from behind the arc.
With her four three-point buckets made, she now has 81 total career three-point field goals made, good enough for 10th on the all-time list.
“It was really good to get back on the winning side tonight,” Rack said. “We started out slow but we picked up the defense intensity. We came out with low confidence after our two losses, but we picked that up too.”
Rack said, however, that the team still had to work on playing the full 40 minutes of the game and needed to come out better instead of starting out sluggishly. She also said that after some hard practice, the team will come back and be ready to play.
Porter said she felt returning home to Humphrey Coliseum aided the Lady Bulldogs in getting back to winning.
“Our defense played great,” Porter said. “I had some bad games but when I came out tonight I just wanted to have fun and just play with my team. Being with them will boost your confidence. It was great being back at home, especially with such balanced scoring tonight.”
Fanning also expressed concern for her team’s slow start but pointed out strong individual performances.
“Tonight Imesia did a great job rebounding, giving energy to the team, and getting to the free throw line, and Robin Porter was able to pick up some blocks which means we were aware of where the ball was,” Fanning said. “We must work on fundamentals such as defense, rebounds and executions because that is how you win the game. We did a good job tonight, and it is always great to have five people score in double figures.”
Fanning said she was also pleased with Amy Reeder and the way freshman forward Mary Kathryn Govero gets after the ball.
“Amy is a ready shooter,” Fanning said. “She’s confident, and I’m confident in her. She played hard tonight and gave us energy. She also had great focus and readiness to shoot.”
Fanning said that with three games this week, the team will need more energy, but she was pleased with the overall performance of the team in the game.
“There was a lot of good in the game tonight, although we didn’t play how we needed to play in the first five minutes of the game,” Fanning said. “We must scrap because if we don’t, we will not win ball games. I keep preaching to take good shots and get that extra pass. We have to keep focus and intensity.