Mississippi State Women Start Off Strong at Van Chancellor Classic
Friday saw another narrow win for the Mississippi State women's basketball team as it defeated Clemson 81-78 at the Van Chancellor Classic in Katy, Texas.
With the holiday-weekend win, No. 25 Mississippi State is off to its best start since the 2019 season, as the Bulldogs moved to 6-0.
Senior guard Jerkaila Jordan led the Bulldogs with 24 points to lead Mississippi State. It was her 24th career 20-plus point game and the third of the young season.
During the first half at the Merrell Center, it was a back-and-forth contest with no clear indication of which team might get the upper hand. The stars for MSU started slowing for the team, but their defense kept them in the ball game. The Tigers were lights out from the 3-point line early on and statistically, to finish the game, they shot better than State in all categories except for the free-throw line (55.8 percent from the field compared to 50.0, and 45.8 to 38.9 percent from 3-point range).
Yet Mississippi Staet led 39-38 coming out of the half, which was when the stars started to make their presence felt.
Led by Jordan, who also had five rebounds and five assists alongside the game-winning steal, Mississippi State shot 70.6. from the field during the third quarter, while Clemson shot 72.7 But Jordan hit a buzzer-beater to close out the quarter with the Bulldogs threatening to pull away/
Next to her was Jessika Carter who scored eight critical points in the third quarter to not allow Clemson to run off with the lead. Lauren Park-Lane, Debreasha Powe, and Darrione Rogers also came up big in the second half hitting timely shots whenever momentum was about to flip to the side of the Tigers.
Park-Lane had 11 points and 10 rebounds for her 13th career point-assist double-double. Carter had 12 points and four rebounds.
Sam Purcell's team has won its last two games by a total of four points as it won at Belmont on Sunday, 63-62. If anything, the Lady Bulldogs are showing they know how to finish games and not quit on themselves. Mississippi State will look to continue its winning ways and go for seven straight against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Saturday at 3:45 p.m. CT on ESPN+.