Mississippi State women’s hoops falls to No. 19 Florida

STARKVILLE, Miss. (MSU Athletics) – In a closely-contested SEC battle Thursday inside the Humphrey Coliseum, Mississippi State fell to No. 19 Florida, 73-64.

On Thursday, Anastasia Hayes was the Bulldogs’ leading scorer, finishing with a game-high 22 points and five rebounds to go along with a pair of blocks and two steals. This marks Hayes’ ninth game of the season, scoring 20 or more points and it is her fourth straight game reaching that mark.

JerKaila Jordan finished with a double-double, tallying 20 points and 10 rebounds while also tying her career-high in steals with four. This is Jordan’s third game of the year, recording a double-double, and it marks her 13th game with multiple steals.

Myah Taylor flirted with a double-double herself, scoring nine points and dishing out seven assists. She also added two rebounds and a steal to her totals. This is the 15th game this season that Taylor has recorded five or more assists.

Caterrion Thompson scored nine points on two three-pointers, along with three rebounds and three steals. Thompson has now recorded three steals in four games this season. Charlotte Kohl earned her fourth start, logging a career-high 31 minutes. Kohl scored three points, grabbed four rebounds and recorded one steal.

The Bulldogs played Florida closely for most of the game, earning a 36-33 halftime lead. The Gators came out of the locker room with an edge, outscoring the Bulldogs by five to take a two-point lead in the final frame. Following a 15-5 run to open the fourth, Jordan scored eight straight points behind a pair of tripels to get MSU to within three with just under three to play before the Gators scored eight of the final 10 points to close out the contest.

Quoting Coach Novak

On staying in the ball game throughout

“The best shooting teams in the country are going to have some off nights. The ball wasn’t going in quite the way that it has been the last couple of games, but I just thought [we] had a toughness defensively, getting hands-on balls when we needed to when it was starting almost to get away from us. Then, we squeezed the floor, we got it into a half-court game, and we got out of ourselves and got a couple of [baskets] in transition, then we started getting to the line.”

Up Next

Mississippi State will host Ole Miss on Sunday, Feb. 13 at 3 p.m.