MSU women’s hoops tops Texas A&M, 78-58

Starkville, Miss. (MSU Athletics) – For the second-straight contest, Mississippi State used a spectacular shooting performance to down Texas A&M, 78-58. The win improves Mississippi State’s record to 13-7 overall and 4-4 in the SEC.

Anastasia Hayes finished as the Bulldogs’ leading scorer, racking up 22 points and tying her season-high in assists with seven. This marks her seventh game of the year, scoring 20+ points and her sixth game as the team’s top scorer. Hayes also finished a perfect 8-8 from the free throw line and pulled down two rebounds.

JerKaila Jordan finished just shy of a double-double on the afternoon, ending with 18 points and nine rebounds on a near-perfect 8-9 shooting. Jordan also added a blocked shot to her stat line. Caterrion Thompson continued her hot three-point shooting, sinking four more triples for 12 points and an assist on the day.

Aislynn Hayes had her best game as a member of the Bulldogs, scoring 14 points on a season-high four 3-pointers along with four rebounds. This marks the fifth game of the season that Aislynn has made three or more 3-pointers in a game. Myah Taylor did what she does best, dishing out six assists and grabbing four steals to go with her 10 points. Taylor has recorded five or more assists in 14 games this season, and she has swiped three or more steals in 11 games.

Denae Carter and Charlotte Kohl made a living blocking shots on Sunday, combining for seven blocks between the two of them. The pair also pulled down a combined eight rebounds.
This was the first game for MSU since Bethune-Cookman (Nov. 22) that the Bulldogs had five players score in double digits. State shot the ball incredibly well at all three levels Sunday, finishing at 57% from the field, 64% from three and 79% from the free throw line.

State dominated this game from start to finish, leading for over 34 minutes of the game. The Bulldogs would extend the lead to as many as 22 in the fourth quarter and would never lead by less than 10 once they took their first double-digit lead at 33-21 in the second quarter.

Quoting Coach Novak
On the team’s relationships
“Nobody bats an eye. They just lean into it. Instead of cowering and asking, “why us?” they just keep leaning into it. They care deeply about each other. They always want to honor each other by playing hard. It sure seems like that is what we do.”

Quoting Myah Taylor
On the strong offensive output
“I think that everything started in practice leading up to this game. We practiced a lot of digging and helping in the post. We knew coming into this game that we would be outsized. I think that we executed the game plan very well. The coaches gave us a great game plan and we trusted it. We were able to go out there and execute it.”

Game Notes
• Anastasia Hayes surpassed the 1,800-career point mark in her career with her 22-point performance. She now has 1,804 career points and 417 assists. She is 8 points shy of 300 at Mississippi State.
• State ended the first quarter on a 6-0 run and the second quarter on an 8-0 run to blow the game open.
• Kohl tied her career-high in blocked shots with three.
• Annie was a perfect 8-for-8 from the free throw line. In the last two games, she is 17 for her last 19 at the charity stripe (89%)

Up Next
Next week the Bulldogs will travel to Auburn on Thursday to take on the Tigers at 7 p.m. Following Thursday’s contest, Mississippi State will be back at home on Thursday, Feb. 10, to take on Florida at 5:30 p.m. and Ole Miss on Sunday, Feb. 13 at 3 p.m.