KNOXVILLE - The Mississippi State women's basketball team entered Thompson-Boling Arena with a 19-0 record Sunday, having won all but two of its games by 10 or more points on the way to a No. 3 national ranking.
Tennessee was supposed to present the Bulldogs their biggest challenge yet. With the sixth-ranked Lady Volunteers playing in a game dedicated to Pat Summitt just three days after a crushing loss at Notre Dame, the stage was set for a showdown between the Southeastern Conference's highest-ranked teams.
Instead, Tennessee became Mississippi State's latest victim. The Lady Vols climbed out of a 17-point third-quarter deficit, narrowing it to seven points early in the fourth before going cold and falling 71-52 in front of 13,436.
"You can't make a lot of mistakes against Mississippi State," Lady Vols coach Holly Warlick said. "They're solid, they're veterans, and we're still learning and growing."
Tennessee center Mercedes Russell (21) takes the ball to the hoop during the first quarter of an NCAA college basketball game against Mississippi State, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018. (Joy Kimbrough/The Daily Times via AP)Mississippi State (20-0, 6-0) became the first team in the country to reach 20 victories this season by winning for just the fourth time in the series' 41-game history. All of the Bulldogs' wins against the Lady Vols have come in the past three seasons as sixth-year coach Vic Schaefer has turned the program into a national power.
For Tennessee (16-3, 4-2), the loss ended a four-game stretch against ranked teams that included three road contests. The Lady Vols, who rely on three freshmen for significant contributions, entered the stretch 15-0 and are coming out of it with a clear sense of their shortcomings.
"We've played some tough teams, and they're exposing us a little bit," Warlick said. "We've got to go back and work on a lot of things."
Ole Miss (11-8, 1-5) will visit Tennessee on Thursday night.
In Thursday's 84-70 loss, 28 turnovers were Tennessee's chief problem. With that figure chopped down to 13 against Mississippi State, Warlick pointed to poor shot selection as the culprit for Tennessee's spotty offense. Jaime Nared and Meme Jackson combined to shoot 4-of-24 from the field, and the Lady Vols went 0-for-8 from 3-point range.
A lesson from Sunday's game was that Mercedes Russell is still Tennessee's most efficient offensive weapon even when she finds herself in a rare matchup against a taller player. Russell, who is 6-foot-6, won the jump ball and scored six of Tennessee's first eight points while being guarded by Teaira McCowan, who's 6-7.
Russell led Tennessee with 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting, but she had just three shots in the second half despite playing the entire game.
The redshirt senior hit her first six shots, with the sixth cutting the Bulldogs' lead to 24-20 with 7:37 left in the first half. Over the next 14-plus minutes, Russell took only one shot as Tennessee's offense floundered amid contested drives to the basket by perimeter players.
"I think we could have gotten the ball to her more," Warlick said. "I wanted her to get the ball more. Mercedes was outstanding today. We wanted to pull her away from the basket and move her around and make McCowan come out and guard her, and she hit some pretty solid jumpers."
After scoring 33 points on 20 shots against Vanderbilt and 21 on 16 at Texas A&M this month, Russell had no more than nine shots in any of Tennessee's past three games, even though her shooting percentage was 76 percent during that stretch.
McCowan, who is the SEC's third-leading scorer, held her own with 12 points and 18 rebounds, including 10 offensive rebounds. Mississippi State, which outscored the Lady Vols 20-11 in second-chance points, was led by Victoria Vivians' 24 points and nine rebounds.
Thompson-Boling Arena came alive when Anastasia Hayes hit two free throws with 7:19 remaining to pull Tennessee within 57-50, but the Lady Vols missed their last 10 shots.
Starting with Ole Miss, six of Tennessee's next seven games are against teams that were not ranked in The Associated Press Top 25 this past week.
"As younger players, I think we just got a really good look at what the SEC tournament is going to look like and moving forward, just playing amazing teams and what we need to do to win games," Tennessee freshman point guard Evina Westbrook said. "We've just got to continue to keep getting better in practice. No one is going to take this lightly."
Summitt's week
Sunday's game tipped off the annual "We Back Pat Week." Teams across the country are expected to pay tribute to the legendary Lady Vols coach, who died in 2016, and contribute to the effort to find a cure for Alzheimer's.
SEC coaches offered tributes to Summitt that were played on the video board before the game.
The Pat Summitt Foundation, which is working to find a cure for Alzheimer's, presented a $500,000 check to the Pat Summitt Clinic at the University of Tennessee Medical Center between the first and second quarters.
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com.