Mississippi State (22-6; 9-5 SEC) used an early spurt in the first quarter win 60-51 over the Ole Miss Rebels (10-17; 2-12 SEC).
“A real hard fought game. Hats off to (Mississippi) State for winning the basketball game there,” head coach Matt Insell said, “We had plenty of opportunities. We cut it to five in the fourth quarter and had a lot of momentum going and just could not finish a couple plays. Our kids continue to play very hard.”
After making three of their first four shots, the Lady Rebels led 7-6 but then began to go cold from the field while Mississippi State began to heat up.
The Bulldogs took advantage of an Ole Miss’ scoring drought for over six minuets to take a 19-9 lead after the first quarter.
As the second half got going Ole Miss still struggled to get anything going but continued to stay in the game by forcing 10 Mississippi state turnovers.
Ole Miss got the lead twice down to five points in the fourth quarter at 45-40 and at 52-47 at the 3:37, but buckets by Bulldog star Victoria Vivians extended the lead back to 10 each time.
“Vivians made some big shots for them,” Insell said, “Every time they needed a bucket she stepped up”
She finished with 22 points including 14 in the second half on 6-of-8 shooting. She also pulled down 10 rebounds.
Guard Morgan Wiliam added 10 points, five rebounds and seven assists for the Bulldogs.
The Lady Rebels still struggled shooting the ball from the floor. They shot 26 percent including 21 percent from three.
Madinah Muhammad led the Lady Rebels with 14 points but only on 2-of-18 shooting. She made 10-of-11 from the free-throw line.
“You’re not going to win a lot of basketball games continuing to shoot below 30 percent,” Insell said.
“We’re guarding we’re just shooting low and we have got to get it up so we can beat people,” sophomore guard Shandricka Sessom said.
“It’s the story of who we are right now,” Insell added. “We play very hard, with a chance to win every game but we’re just not making any shots.
Insell guarantees that teams should be careful for his young bunch of players.
“I promise you there won’t be a lot of teams that want to play us because we’ve been in every game,” he said.
Ole Miss is home again on Thursday as they take on the No. 3 ranked South Carolina Gamecocks at 8 p.m. CT
