Since giving up 74 points against South Carolina nearly a month ago, Mississippi State’s defense has been feisty with four-straight opponents being held under 50 points.
That trend continued on the road against Alabama on Sunday afternoon, but the No. 6 Bulldogs also continued a downward offensive trend. Recently leading the nation offensively at 90 points a game, MSU scored under 70 points for the second-straight game but it was plenty enough for a comfortable 65-49 win. There were negatives to take away from the ball game on Sunday but it was a win for head coach Vic Schaefer. And the way that they did it on the defensive end pleased the veteran coach.
“I’m awfully proud of my team. I thought we were really special defensively,” Schaefer said. “I was really proud of us defensively. Forty-nine points is hard to do in this league. Our kids showed a little toughness today. I’m proud of them for that and I’m proud to get out with a victory.”
As sophomore forward Chloe Bibby walked out of the locker room pregame at Coleman Coliseum to a standing ovation from the MSU faithful, her presence and Bre’Amber Scott’s, was missed. While Bibby is out for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee, Scott suffered a hard hit at LSU that put her out for the second half and kept her out of practice late in the week, ultimately keeping her at home on Sunday.
Included in those injuries was senior guard Jordan Danberry who has been dealing with an ankle injury and looked to have re-tweaked it in the first half on Sunday. She finished with eight points on 4-of-10 shooting and played only two minutes in the second half.
“We’ve got some time to heal up a little bit,” Schaefer said. “I thought it would be the best thing for those players to stay back. We had to get kids in (against Alabama) that could play harder and when we went to the bench Xaria (Wiggins) was good for us.”
With a short bench, MSU struggled to get production from anyone other than starters. Four players off of that bench combined to shoot 1-for-12 from the field and scored five points.
MSU did get a big day for Anriel Howard who had 24 points and seven rebounds, while Teaira McCowan scored 12 points and pulled down 12 rebounds to earn the 57th double-double for her career and 18th this season.. Jazzmun Holmes finished with 10 points, five rebounds and three assists.
Howard’s day of redemption came after scoring just six points on the road at LSU. She’s averaging 19.5 points per game after scoring single digits the game before notching at least 20 points in four of six such games.
“I just turn the page. If I know I didn’t have a good game, I'll just work on things I didn’t do well like shooting,” Howard said. “I try to turn the page and move forward.”
Following up that tough performance at LSU, Howard was on fire out of the gates for the Bulldogs. She had 15 points in the first half as MSU took a 21-13 lead at the first quarter and made it 39-27 at the break.
The Bulldogs (21-1, 9-0 SEC) held the Tide (11-11, 3-6 SEC) to 18-of-60 shooting in the game and 5-of-19 from 3-point range while turning them over 18 times. It was a repeat of the LSU game in terms of rebounding, however, as the Bulldogs had just a 39-37 edge on the glass against the Tide and surrendered 16 offensive boards.
With the much-needed week off, the No. 6 Bulldogs get prepared to come back home and take on Tennessee. State hosts the Lady Volunteers on Sunday in a 1 p.m. tipoff.
