MARTIN, Tenn. — The Starkville, Miss., women’s basketball team at Mississippi State put up the most points of the Sam Purcell era on Sunday, rolling past UT Martin 114-68 on the Skyhawks’ home floor at the Kathleen & Tom Elam Center.
The Starkville team led by only six after one quarter before a 34-point second period blew the game open. The Bulldogs went 5-7 from three-point range in that stretch and took a 16-point cushion into the locker room.
For the night, Mississippi State made 60 percent of its field goal tries and half of its threes, and it handed out 26 assists. That is the eighth game under Purcell in which the Bulldogs reached at least 25 assists.
The scoring was spread around. The leading scorer finished with 21 points on 9-of-10 shooting and grabbed 14 rebounds, her fifth double-double in a row going back to last season. Another guard poured in 17, with all four of her made threes coming during the second-quarter surge, three of them on back-to-back-to-back trips.
A third Bulldog posted the first double-double of her career with 12 points and 10 assists in a homecoming game in her native state, and the bench chipped in a 15-point effort on 6-of-9 shooting.
UT Martin did some damage inside, scoring 34 points in the paint, and its reserves added 29 points. The Skyhawks also forced 19 Bulldog turnovers. The Skyhawks came in averaging 21.3 forced turnovers per game and now head to Columbia, Mo., to play Missouri on Thursday night.
Mississippi State comes home to Humphrey Coliseum on Wednesday, Nov. 11, to face Troy, with tipoff at 6:30 p.m.
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