Mississippi State dropped its third straight in SEC play on Thursday night, falling 68-64 at Texas A&M in a battle on the bubble of NCAA Tournament contention.
The Bulldogs didn’t start as strongly as they would have hoped, falling behind 11-2 in the first five minutes of the game, but recovered to tie the game at 12-12 by the end of the first quarter. The deadlock continued into the halftime break, with the teams level at 25-25, before a third-quarter surge from MSU gave them an advantage on the road.
Freshman Madison Francis stepped up big for the Bulldogs with 11 third-quarter points, giving her squad a 46-41 advantage going into the final frame of a defensive contest. She had 19 points, eight rebounds, a block and a steal through three quarters of action and played a big role alongside Favour Nwaedozi in giving MSU the edge in the paint.
The back-and-forth nature of the game continued into the fourth quarter, where Trayanna Crisp and Chandler Prater began to shine offensively. Each guard put down a three-point shot early in the fourth quarter after the Aggies had pulled the deficit to within one score.
The Aggies kept coming, fighting with the same desperation for a shot at the postseason as the Bulldogs, but it was the defensive work that dealt a significant blow in the final minutes. The Bulldogs went on a three-minute drought going into the final minute of action as the hosts took a 63-60 lead.
Head coach Sam Purcell called a timeout to draw up a play down three, and Crisp got to the free throw line but only hit 1-2. Salese Blow came back down the other end and crossed up two Bulldogs before hitting an easy layup to extend the lead to four points.
The Bulldogs pulled to within three again, and a steal from Francis set up a chance, but the Bulldogs missed on two good looks from beyond the arc.
They’ll return to Starkville to wrap up the regular season at Humphrey Coliseum against No. 6 LSU on Sunday.
Posted in College Sports
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