On Jan. 18, the Mississippi State women’s basketball team executed the infamous 50-40-10 rule that head coach Sam Purcell has been drilling into their minds all season long.
“50 percent has got to come from the heart, 40 percent has got to come from the mind and understanding, and the last 10 percent has got to be a dog fight,” Purcell said during the press conference against Kentucky on Jan. 18.
MSU basketball has been on a four-game losing streak this season and has not beaten the Wildcats in the last two matchups. However, this was ended when the Bulldogs dominated Kentucky with a 71-59 win.
The win over Kentucky marked the Bulldogs’ first top-10 win this season and lit the fire the team needed after their recent losses. Kharyssa Richardson, a senior transfer from Ole Miss, noticed the change in her team that allowed them to secure the game.
“Every timeout, every huddle, was to get a stop score, stop score,” Richardson said. “And that was our main thing, just doing defense, getting deflections, getting steals from the post and doing what we worked on in practice.”
Richardson spent her first collegiate season at Auburn University, followed by two seasons at Ole Miss, but Mississippi State has quickly become her home. The heart of the team is what Purcell refers to as the 50 percent.
“Each school is different,” Richardson said. “But here, I feel like my coaches are more confident in me and have the confidence where I could give the confidence to my team.”
The Bulldogs started the game strong, but slow, trailing three points behind Kentucky at halftime. MSU scored 30 points in the first half, but insisted on earning this win and scored 41 points in the second half.
It was not until early in the fourth quarter that the fanbase exploded after Richardson scored a three-pointer, followed by a block by Madison Francis and an immediate three-pointer by Trayanna Crisp, allowing the Dawgs to have a 10-point lead with just over seven minutes left to play.
“I think I’ve got one of the best fanbases in the country,” Purcell said. “The energy in this building is just different when we’re loud, and that roof, that noise is coming off our band and our students’ backs, it just provides a juice that you just don’t think you can get beat.”
The 40 percent, the mind and understanding, is what clicked for Trayanna Crisp, a senior transfer from North Carolina, during that crowd-roaring play.
“I mean, it just felt good,” Crisp said. “We know Richardson can get a bucket, we know everybody on the team can get a bucket, but when we are flowing on offense and playing our side of basketball, it gets dangerous.”
And then there is the 10 percent, the dog fight. Kentucky was ranked No.7 when unranked Mississippi State faced them, meaning the Bulldogs needed to step up their game.
“Who wants it more, right?” Purcell said. “Dog mentality, and that’s the 10 percent that I’m trying to make sure they get back to that I thought we had that we kind of lost earlier in SEC play.”
Mississippi State women’s basketball is now 15-6 overall and 2-5 in conference play after a loss on Sunday to Alabama. They travel to Knoxville on Thursday to face the Tennessee Volunteers.
