Aggies fall to Mississippi State after second-half Bulldog comeback
On Sunday, the No.16 ranked Aggie women (18-5, 6-4) suffered a road loss to ranked No. 8 Mississippi State (22-3, 10-1) in Starkville. A familiar turnover battle and an energized dynamic-duo offense proved the SEC opponent too much for the Aggies to overcome.
Gary Blair lost out to his former assistant, current Mississippi’s State’s head coach Vic Schaefer, after a fourth quarter resurgent comeback win that at halftime saw the Aggies holding an 11-point lead. In the 12th overall match-up between these two teams, the Aggies have earned just one win in Starkville, bringing home an 81-33 victory in 2013. Mississippi State leads the series 7-4.
The Aggies were able to put forth a strong first half performance after turnovers plagued the team in the first quarter. Kayla Wells came alive during the second quarter, putting up 14 of her 16 points for the Aggies. The Aggies were able to power to an 11-point lead in front of a Bulldog’s packed home-crowd stadium with a 37-26 score at halftime.
But aggression became the name of the game for Mississippi State, and the battle inside the paint pushed the Aggies outside while the Bulldogs put up the first nine points of the fourth quarter to take the lead and never looked back. The young talent in redshirt sophomore Myah Taylor and freshman Rickea Jackson with a combined 37 total points carried Mississippi State over to a 69-57 comeback victory in Humphrey Coliseum.
With still no word on the future, this loss especially highlighted the shallow bench depth the Aggies have been suffering from since the loss of top scorer Chennedy Carter on an ankle injury against LSU back in early January, and on Sunday once again had to do without her explosive scoreboard efforts. Aggie junior forward N’dea Jones tied with Wells for 16 overall points, and secured her 11th consecutive double-double, ranking fourth in the SEC among active players. Shambria Washington led with five assists for the Aggie offense, and Aaliyah Wilson put up 12 overall points.
The Aggies will return home to Reed Arena to host Vanderbilt on Thursday, February 13th at 8:00pm.
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