The Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs (17-6) used a 19-4 run over the final 5:20 of the first half Wednesday to pull away from the University of New Orleans (10-13). The Bulldogs held UNO without a field goal in the final eight minutes of the first half, and pushed their lead to 46-21 before halftime.
With the game seemingly in hand after the intermission, the Lady Bulldogs allowed the Privateers to cut into the lead during the second half.
Behind 7-of-14 from three-point range in the second half, UNO cut the Bulldog lead to the final margin of 12 points, 81-69.
“I felt like in the first half we did the things we needed to do,” MSU head coach Sharon Fanning said. “We lost focus in the second half. I am tickled to death with the win, but this was not the maturity that we needed to show.”
In the first half, the Lady Bulldogs shot 51 percent from the field while holding the visiting Privateers to just 22 percent. During the second half, however, the Privateers improved the 46 percent while MSU shot just 37 percent.
MSU controlled the backboards for the entire game, pulling down 50 rebounds, 20 offensive, to just 36 from UNO. For the game, MSU placed three players in double-digit rebounding totals.
For the first time this season the Lady Bulldogs had two players post double-doubles. LaToya Thomas lead all scorers with 30 points and posted 10 rebounds and Tan White added 16 points to go along with her 10 rebounds. Doceide Warren also added 13 points for the Lady Bulldogs, as Rebecca Kates posted a game-high 12 rebounds.
UNO also placed three players in double-digits, with Jasmine Smiri leading the way with 12 and Monique Taylor and Jeannette Jimenez each posting 11 points.
During the second half of Wednesday night’s contest, MSU senior guard Renea Jones went down with a hyper-extended knee.
Jones should be back practicing today, and be able to play on Sunday.
The Wednesday night contest marked the final non-conference regular season game for the Bulldogs. MSU finished their non-conference schedule 12-2 including 6-0 at home.
“I think that this win really gives us some confidence going into this weekend,” Thomas said. “We were coming off of two tough loses, and needed something like this.” MSU will next take the floor against the University of Kentucky in a game set for a 2 p.m. tipoff at the Humphrey Coliseum. The Wildcats were 9-11 and 2-6 before taking on Arkansas last night.