#17 Lady Dawgs put nation on notice with 64-56 win over #19 Georgia
As I told you before and I will tell you again, this Lady Bulldogs team is the real deal. Today, the 17-ranked Mississippi State Women’s basketball team defeated the #19 team in the country in the Georgia Lady Dawgs. This is the first ranked win for the Bulldogs and is pretty much a coming-out party for the Bulldogs to the rest of the nation. This continues the Lady Bulldogs’ record-breaking season that includes the best start and longest win streak in the program’s history.
Georgia (12-2, 0-1 SEC) is a well-built team that provided Mississippi State with a tough battle throughout. Led by Mississippi native Tiana Griffin with 13 points, the Georgia Bulldogs provided punch after punch at the Mississippi State squad. The Georgia squad also did fairly well in the assist-to-turnover ratio as they ended up an even 14-14 there, which beats out the Mississippi State ratio of 11-13. Georgia also hit 5 buckets from beyond the arc, but it took 3 times as many attempts for them to reach that number compared to Mississippi State’s shooting (3-7). The rebounding battle also favored the Eastern Division Bulldogs as they dominated the boards 43-37.
Mississippi State (16-0, 1-0 SEC) ended up coming out on top, even though some of the stats were favored for the opposing side. Kendra Grant, Breanna Richardson, and Morgan William paced the MSU squad in scoring with 11 points each. Senior forward Martha Alwal was the other Lady Bulldog to contribute double-digit points for this game as she had 10. Dominique Dillingham was close to reaching that mark as she contributed 9 points to the affair. The Lady Bulldogs went to the line 20 times and made 17 of their shots for an 85% free throw percentage. The Lady Bulldogs also had a higher overall shooting percentage as they ended up with a 39.3% clip compared to Georgia’s 33.8% mark. Freshman star Victoria Vivians was held fairly well in check the whole time as she only accounted for 5 points and 3 rebounds for the match.
The #17 Lady Bulldogs will be on the road Sunday as they travel to Columbia, Missouri to face off against the Missouri Tigers. The Tigers will be coming off of their game versus the #8 Tennessee Lady Vols squad in Knoxville, TN. Depending on the results of the game, the Tigers will be entering the game with either a 10-4 or 11-3 record. Either way, this game is not to be held lightly in the eyes of Bulldog supporters. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network + and tipoff is slated for 2:00 PM CST.