The 6:00 game is Alabama at Texas A&M, and Alabama at the half is blowing them out, and A&M's star player is playing.
Maybe us losing to Alabama last Sunday wasn't that much of a fluke.
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The 6:00 game is Alabama at Texas A&M, and Alabama at the half is blowing them out, and A&M's star player is playing.
Maybe us losing to Alabama last Sunday wasn't that much of a fluke.
Aliyah Matharu in the starting lineup
I don't know if I've ever seen a team worse at 3 point shooting than our women's team. We are terrible at it.
she is pretty thuggish at times
We hit a 3!
Halftime
Miss. State 51 Arkansas 43
Jessika Carter 14 pts
Aliyah Matharu 13 pts
Rickea Jackson 7 pts
Chloe Bibby 7 pts
Jordan Danberry 6 pts
Matharu is up to 18 pts, including 4 of 7 from 3 pt range (3rd quarter)
Matharu, and to a lesser degree Hunter, shooting has been huge. It spaces the floor and gives us an added element offensively that we haven't had. Both need more minutes
Arkansas seems to shoot a much higher percentage from 3 point range than they do on 2 point FGs. When is the last time they missed a 3 pointer?
Final
Miss. State 92 Arkansas 83
Double Figures...
- Jessika Carter 21 pts (38 minutes)
- Jordan Danberry 19 pts (33 minutes)
- Aliyah Matharu 18 pts (38 minutes)
- Andra Espinoza-Hunter 13 pts (23 minutes)
- Chloe Bibby 11 pts (26 minutes)
Few Notes.....
Senior night for Jordan Danberry
Carter 21 pts, 11 rbs
Matharu 18 pts, 7 rbs, 4 assists
Rickea Jackson with 7 points off the bench (reported she's dealing with strep throat)
Myah Taylor 7 assists, 3 steals
Alexis Tolefree 30 pts for Arkansas
Really good bounce back win for the Lady Dogs. Still stings that we let the Bama game get away from us given we had a double digit 4th Q lead but if we wrap up the regular season with 5 losses that still a really good year given the youth of the team. That 2nd half is the best we've shot from the outside in a long time. Our offense would go to another level if we can hit more 3s when they are available.
At the end of the day the Bama loss may do more good than harm for us. Didn’t really hurt us from a seeding standpoint in the NCAA or SEC Tourneys and we had a really nice response tonight. To beat a good team with Rickea in a limited role is impressive.
Feels like we may have locked up a 3 seed tonight barring an all-time upset in Oxford on Sunday. I’m not sure we could move up to a 2 seed unless we win the SEC Tourney. Looking like we will be on the same side of the bracket as Kentucky so we have a chance for revenge there potentially.
That was the best we looked defensively in a while - we looked 2 steps faster tonight with a lot more hustle and better ball movement. Still have some issues on defense we need to sort out but today seemed like a good step forward.
Was Mingo-Young sick as well? We had to give Matharu and AEH more minutes tonight and it paid dividends as both showed some scoring punch that freed up others to be more efficient.
I thought that was the most complete game of basketball we have played since the loss at USC. We have shown spurts since but last night was our best effort since USC.
The threat of a perimeter shot opens up lanes for our guards to drive.
Matharu needs consistent minutes. She adds an element that we need badly.
AEH played great last night. It was good to see her play well. She struggled with her shot early. But she kept playing hard on the defensive end and got some baskets at the free throw line and on a rebound. Then she started making shots.
Bibby played great defensively last night. Her effort on Dungee was a big reason we won that game.
We have potential to go on a run. We also have potential to lose in the rd of 32. Thats what young teams do. Next year, look out.
Despite all the crying about our shooting on here, the ladies are still the top FG% team in the league, just ahead of USC.
Keep playing Matharu...
She's a big key to this offense. Also, in addition to providing more scoring, perimeter shooting, ect ....helps open up things for others.
Coaching staff....very good decision
This changes the opponents scouting reports on Miss. State
Are some saying Vic reads ED for assistants****
Nice job by our Coaches and especially the players.
He listened to me last night. I was saying that he needed to try Chloe or Rickea at center (I didn't know Jackson was sick at the time), and he did for a minute to give a Jessica a little rest. Hopefully, Morris will have better nights because Carter will need a break in games as fast as this one was.
We got to have some shooters on the floor. We had balance against Ark, best I've seen all year. We have the pieces to make a good run but must have the right mix on the floor. Danberry at PG and Matharu are huge. Sub Hunter and Taylor and Mingo young as guard backups but must have a shooter or two on floor at all times. Carter is unstoppable with shooters on the floor. Do that and we are hard to beat.
What we been doing all year is Carter with no shooters. We may be tough if we stay with this rest of the way. Vic has most talent he has every had here. It is a lot to figure out.
Matharu may be SEC freshman of the week.
Well this was born out of Rikea being sick and maybe Mingo Young as well since she didn?t play a single minute but hopefully we learned something. Will be curious how this changes the rotation once everyone is healthy
It's hard to put Myah and Jordan on the floor at the same time. Opposing teams just back off and pack the paint. It will be different next year because we will have a different rotation that can stretch the floor.
May need to split these two up as much as possible unless in more favorable machups for them to take more advantage of they're strengths or at times when at least a couple of additional perimeter shooters are on the court along with them.
This backcourt would work a good bit better with dominant frontcourt players like Teaira McCowan and Anriel Howard rebounding, getting put backs, ect.....similar to last season when Jazz and Danberry were in the backcourt together. Still, McCowan appeared to be much more effective when she was surrounded by shooters like Victoria Vivians, Ro. Johnson, Blair Schaefer, and Morgan William...the year before.