Bulldogs lay an egg in 71-56 loss to Florida
Mississippi State came into Thursday night’s matchup with Florida looking to get closer to sealing up Sam Purcell’s third NCAA Tournament in four years.
Instead, the Bulldogs might have pushed themselves too far away.
Florida entered 3-9 in SEC play this season but had been a tough out in many of its games. They showed why against State as the Gators attacked the Bulldogs from the start and never let up on the way to a 71-56 victory inside Humphrey Coliseum.
It was a game that was eerily similar to Purcell’s team dropping a 90-70 blowout to the Gators two seasons ago as the Gators finished that season .500 but damaged State’s chances at a tournament. This year, that same program looked like the aggressor and got a double-digit lead early that they would never lose.
“They’re a phenomenal first quarter and the energy that they came out with, we didn’t match it,” Purcell said. “I thought we did a great job in the second half to fight. I had too many people that went quiet tonight and that can’t happen in the SEC, especially at home. There’s nothing that happened that I’m surprised about which is why I’m so upset.”
That lead came before the Bulldogs could even get much of a breather. A 12-0 run midway through the first quarter built things out to 24-14 after the first frame and the Bulldogs were fighting up the hill all game long.
UF took a 43-30 lead in the break and the Bulldogs would play good enough defense in the third quarter to get back in the game, but the offense never came. State got the lead down to 10 points late in the frame but would just cut into the disadvantage by one point at 54-43. In the fourth, the lead would never get below that 11-point mark as Florida would cruise to victory.
A game after making a season-high 14 3-pointers at Arkansas, State shot an abysmal 1-for-12 from long range. What did follow the Bulldogs from Fayetteville was the turnovers. After giving the ball away 22 times against the Razorbacks, State had 17 against the Gators with 11 of those coming in the first half. Florida scored 16 points off of those.
“It started with the turnovers. We got emotional,” Purcell said. “I think I called two timeouts in the first quarter but I don’t understand why they didn’t come out with more fight like (Madison Francis) did.”
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State was also poor at protecting the rim as the Gators scored 44 points in the paint. Getting the bulk of those was star player Liv McGill who scored 30 points on 12-of-22 shooting and she added seven assists.
The Gators shot 58% inside the 3-point arc after making just 4-of-18 from long range. State was 21-of-56 from the field and made just 13-of-21 free throws after going 9-for-9 in the first half.
Francis would be the only one that would show offensively. The Bulldog freshman scored 20 points and had 13 rebounds with three blocks and three steals. No one else scored more than eight points. Fellow freshman Jaylah Lampley had just six points but pulled down 11 rebounds.
With another bad home loss saddled to the resume, the Bulldogs are likely playing their way out of the tournament. State would need to pull off an upset in one of the final three games with No. 4 Texas hosting the Bulldogs in Austin on Sunday at 1 p.m. and No. 7 LSU coming to town to close the season on March 1. The Bulldogs also have a road trip to Texas A&M next Thursday.
“We’re all pretty disappointed. We know that we could have given a little more but we’re still a team and a family,” Francis said. “We’re going to put this behind us, get back in the gym, focus on the things that went wrong and keep going.”
