The regular season ended on a low note for the Lady Bulldogs as they dropped a 64-49 contest to the No. 6 LSU Lady Tigers.
LSU finished 12-0 in conference play to wrap up the SEC women’s title. Before the game, Mississippi State recognized its seniors: Imesia Jackson, Miayorka Johnson, Amy Reeder and manager John Rutherford.
LSU went on an 11-0 run to start the game, holding Mississippi State scoreless for almost eight minutes. Freshman Mary Kathryn Govero broke the ice with 12:03 left in the half, grabbing her own offensive rebound and putting it in.
That sparked a 6-0 run by the Lady Bulldogs, cutting the LSU lead to five. That was as close as MSU would get in the first half, and LSU took a 30-18 lead into the locker room.
Mississippi State battled back in the second half, cutting the lead to one with 12:54 remaining after Lady Bulldog junior Donnisha Tate scored five points in less than twenty seconds with two field goals and a free throw. Alexis Rack would tie the game at 42 points with a 3-pointer one minute later.
LSU outscored the Lady Bulldogs 22-2 in the next 10 minutes, including a nearly eight- minute scoring drought for MSU, to put the game out of reach.
Johnson, playing in her last regular season game at Humphrey Coliseum, fittingly scored the final five points of the contest.
LSU center Sylvia Fowles quietly tossed in 20 points to lead all scorers in the contest, despite taking only 12 shots from the field. She also led the game in rebounds with 12. Tate was charged with the difficult task of guarding Fowles.
“Fowles is a very good post player,” Tate said. “It’s an honor playing against her, but it’s hard. Standing at 6-foot-6, that lob is hard to take away.”
For Mississippi State, Rack and Tate each scored 11 points. Marneshia Richard added nine points to the total.
LSU head coach Van Chancellor, an MSU alumnus, praised the play of his alma mater.
“State did a really nice job today,” Chancellor said. “Give them credit for coming back and making it a great game.”
Like her counterpart, MSU head coach Sharon Fanning was also impressed with the Lady Tigers.
“LSU is a team that puts a lot of pressure on the ball, and they contest shots very hard,” she said. “It’s a team with eight seniors, and they’ve been in Final Fours together. They know how to play together. They know how to win.”
Fanning said she likes what she has seen out of her team in the past month.
“I’m very pleased with February in terms of our effort,” she said. “We haven’t played the 40 minutes that we have to have, but we’re finding a way to win. They’re starting to do the little things that they have to do to be in a position to win.”
Fanning said hopefully that will carry over into the conference tournament, the next step for the Lady Bulldogs.
They take on in-state rival Ole Miss on Thursday with a noon tip-off time set at the Sommet Center in Nashville, Tenn. The two teams have met twice this year, and have each claimed one win.