STARKVILLE — Sam Purcell called two timeouts in the first quarter of Sunday’s Mississippi State women’s basketball game versus Alabama.

The third-year MSU coach said he can’t recall ever doing that. 

And then he admitted he should’ve called the third of his four allotted timeouts. 

The Bulldogs were crushed 26-11 in the quarter, setting up an 80-60 loss to the No. 23 Crimson Tide (20-5, 7-4) at Humphrey Coliseum. They trailed by 25 points at halftime, their largest deficit through two quarters this season. 

“They did a great job jumping on us 8-0,” Purcell said. “And then the next thing you know is the hustle plays, which were unacceptable. Kid goes diving out of bounds, throws it over her head, those are 50-50 balls that you got to win. We dribble it up, don’t have awareness, they steal it. Next thing you know, that’s where I’m finding another (timeout) because obviously we didn’t learn from the first timeout.”

It was another game in which Mississippi State’s wild in-game inconsistencies were apparent. 

MSU (17-8, 4-7 SEC) outscored Alabama in the third and fourth quarters, whittling a once 28-point lead to 13 with 4:06 to play. The deficit was too much to overcome. 

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It’s also not the first time this season in which the Bulldogs’ production swung like a pendulum. The result is losses: This was Mississippi State’s fifth defeat in the past seven games. 

“Today was, again, an example when you play in this league, you got to bring it for four quarters,” Purcell said. “So that’s where my focus is coming out the gate, sustaining hard work for four quarters to give yourself a chance at the end.”

Where Sam Purcell thinks Mississippi State can be more consistent

Purcell said he thought the game played out similarly to the Feb. 2 loss at LSU. Mississippi State was outscored 24-12 in the first quarter of that game and fell behind by 18 in the second quarter before losing 81-67. 

He also pointed to the Jan. 2 loss at Kentucky in which the Bulldogs were inconsistent quarter-by-quarter en route to a 91-69 loss. 

The Jan. 5 loss to South Carolina is another example. MSU had an 11-point lead in the second quarter but was outscored 51-17 in the next 16:46 in a 27-point loss.

“You got to get defensive stops right in this league to win,” Purcell said “And again, because we missed some layups and some open shots, I thought it affected us on the defensive end. And that’s the parts why I keep on referencing this game, the LSU, the Kentucky, is, OK, you didn’t come out the gate and make shots. You got to have another layer and another toughness, and that’s what I’m fighting with this team. That’s where we’re not going to settle as a coaching staff to continue because we got great basketball ahead of us to get an identity that’s a little bit more tough on the defensive end.”

Sam Sklar is the Mississippi State beat reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at ssklar@gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.