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Women’s Basketball: Mississippi State shows no mercy on Mercer in blowout win

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Women’s Basketball: Mississippi State shows no mercy on Mercer in blowout win


STARKVILLE — Former Mississippi State assistant coach Michelle Clark-Heard returned to Humphrey Coliseum on Wednesday night as the head coach at Mercer, and her ex-boss, Sam Purcell, made sure it was a rude welcome home.

The Bulldogs limited their fourth straight opponent to under 50 points and have held all five teams they’ve played to under 30 percent shooting, defeating the Bears 81-44.

“We’re watching film, we’re trying to find every advantage we can,” Purcell said. “That stuff matters to us. That’s culture, that’s DNA. We train hard, we work hard, and we’re a multiple defensive team. I always say there’s bad coaches out there if you only play one style, and that’s not who we’re going to be. We can press, we can trap, so it makes it a nightmare for our opponents.”

Mercer did not make a 3-pointer until there were less than two minutes left in the fourth quarter, finishing 1-for-17 from behind the arc. MSU (5-0) made more than half of its field goals and was 10-for-22 from deep, outscoring the Bears 44-14 in the paint.

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Fifth-year senior guard Jerkaila Jordan entered the game having made just one 3-pointer on 15 attempts so far this season, but she made her first shot of the night from distance behind a screen in the final minute of the opening quarter. Jordan then blocked Hanna Knoll’s 3-point attempt on the other end, and Eniya Russell connected from long range to beat the buzzer and put the Bulldogs ahead by double digits.

Jordan recorded a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds, and she was 3-for-4 from 3-point range, nailing a triple from each corner 33 seconds apart in the third quarter.

“She just needs to relax. That’s it,” Purcell said. “The kid’s a pro. She trains hard, she’s in the gym every single day. She knows what’s up. I haven’t said one thing to her. I knew it was going to finally end, I’m just glad it happened before we head on the road.”

Madina Okot had another big night in the post, tallying 15 points, eight boards, two blocks and two steals. The Kenyan is shooting 65 percent through five games in the maroon and white and is pulling down nearly 10 boards per contest.

“This has been my dream, and I just feel happy,” Okot said. “I’m just grateful for the team and for this coaching staff. They’re really doing great, I’m putting in work and they’re ready to support me to get everything I desire to get here.”

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MSU already led by 20 at the half before winning the third quarter 32-7, finishing the period on an 18-2 run. The Bulldogs’ last four opponents have scored a total of 24 points in the third quarter.

Junior sharpshooter Debreasha Powe was also in double figures with 13 points, going 5-for-7 from the floor and 3-for-5 from behind the 3-point line. Destiny McPhaul had an efficient night as well, and Quanirah Montague had eight points in just 13 minutes of action. MSU shared the ball extremely well, with 26 assists on 33 made field goals.

“I was just locked in,” Montague said. “I was ready to get in the game, ready to have energy and bring energy to my team.”

The Bulldogs will not play in Starkville again until Dec. 29, following eight straight games away from The Hump. They are back in action Sunday against Jacksonville in Orlando, Florida, a neutral-site game that is part of the inaugural WBCA Showcase.

Wednesday’s win was No. 50 for Purcell in 73 games at MSU, making him the fastest coach in program history to reach that milestone.

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“It’s all about the young women who step on the floor and sacrifice night in and night out,” Purcell said. “I’ve never scored a point here at Mississippi State. I’m fortunate to have a university that gave a first-time head coach an opportunity. You need one school to believe in you, so it means the world that Mississippi State believed in me.”

Mississippi State women’s basketball

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Mississippi LB Devontray Brewer committed to Stanford and broke down his decision

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Mississippi LB Devontray Brewer committed to Stanford and broke down his decision


Tupleo (Miss.) linebacker Devontray Brewer just announced his commitment to Stanford and broke down why he chose the Cardinal. 

Stanford is coming off a big recruiting weekend and have landed multiple commitments so far. Brewer just announced he’ll be playing his college ball out West in what is a really nice pickup for the Cardinal. 

“The academics at Stanford was the main reason I committed,” Brewer said. “It really doesn’t get any better than Stanford and I also loved the coaching staff and their energy all weekend.

“They’re ready to bring that every day and that’s something I want to be around. You can feel the program is turning around and they will be back on the map and I’m excited to get to be a part of that.”

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Brewer said this was his first time visiting the West Coast.

“That was my first time out West and I felt very comfortable,” Brewer said. “I can definitely see myself out there in the future and that was another reason I committed, the strong comfort level.

“Going in to the visit, I really planning on committing. Once I was there though, I just felt it in my gut. I got that feeling in my heart that this is where I belonged so I went ahead and made my decision.”

Brewer said he loved the scheme fit as well.

“I love the defense they run,” Brewer said. “With coach (Kris) Richard as the defensive coordinator, that’s a defense that’s going to be feared.

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“I fit in well and they plan to play me as a mike ‘backer (inside LB). I’ll be calling the plays for the defense so I’m really excited.”

Brewer had a big junior season, totaling 119 tackles, 10  for loss and 4.5 sacks. He’s rated the No. 543 player nationally in the Rivals Industry Ranking, an equally weighted average that utilizes all three major recruiting services and the No. 14 player in the state. 

He was a standout at the Rivals Combine in Nashville where he measured in at a solid 6-foot-1, 235 pounds, clocked a 4.75-40, jumped 35″ in the vertical and broad jumped 121″.



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Mississippi ruling clears path for private AI power. Prado moves forward

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Mississippi ruling clears path for private AI power. Prado moves forward


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  • The Mississippi Public Service Commission ruled that companies can generate power for their own use without being regulated as a public utility.
  • This ruling allows Gabriel Prado and his company, PraCon Global, to potentially build data centers with their own on-site power generation.
  • Prado’s plan involves developing AI industrial campuses in areas of Mississippi that currently lack sufficient power grid infrastructure.
  • Unlike other data centers relying on large utilities, Prado’s projects aim to prevent energy cost increases for Mississippi ratepayers.

The Mississippi Public Service Commission has made a ruling that paves the way for Gabriel Prado and his company PraCon Global investment Group to move forward with plans to potentially build a data center in the Jackson area.

The Public Service Commission’s ruling could transform how energy usage is delivered, particularly for the data center economy in Mississippi and next generation AI industrial development, in theory protecting consumers from long-term energy cost increases.

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“PraCon Global investment Group welcomes the decision of the Mississippi Public Service Commission that leaves intact the plain language of Mississippi law and declines to reinterpret or narrow the long-standing statutory exemption that allows companies to construct, own, and operate electric generationfacilities for their own private commercial use without regulation as a public utility,” Prado said. “Asstated in its Request, PRADO AI’s proposed power generation facilities will serve its planned AI data center and AI semiconductor manufacturing campus.

“By declining to issue a declaratory opinion, the commission did not alter, limit or reinterpret the statutory exemption contained in Mississippi Code §77-3-3(d). PRADO AI celebrates that the PSC and Mississippi law continues to operate exactly as written by the Mississippi Legislature, allowing private companies to generate electricity for their own facilities without being classified as a public utility.”

The ruling is also a step for Prado and his company, which plans to jump into the fray to compete in the data center explosion as he intends to add large scale AI industrial infrastructure projects, including “AI semiconductor facilities” and data centers across Mississippi.

Large utilities’ role in Mississippi data center economy

As Mississippi gets deeper and deeper into a data center economy that is going to require copious amounts of energy over the next decade, Entergy Mississippi pushed all its chips in the middle of the table.

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Entergy Mississippi made a five-year investment in 2025 into what it called reliable energy to keep rates lower. Those investments, Entergy has said, will be paid for by companies such as Amazon.

Meanwhile, states throughout the nation are pushing back on the data center economy, in part because of fears of rising energy costs.

In May, Maine lawmakers passed the first U.S. statewide moratorium on new, large data centers to study impacts on energy rates and environmental resources.

Last week in Jackson, dozens of Jackson residents — some with signs that read “No Data Centers,” “Can’t Drink Data” and “Jackson is our City” packed shoulder-to-shoulder into the small conference room inside the Warren Hood Building on Wednesday, May 27.

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It all goes back to available energy

The one thing that data center developers AWS, Compass Data in Meridian and AVAIO Digital in Brandon have talked about is the ability of the state’s energy companies to deliver at a breakneck speed. In the case of Compass, it has been Mississippi Power, but for AWS, at both Madison campuses and the Warren County campus and then AVAIO, it has been Entergy.

Mark McComiskey, AVAIO Digital CEO2, made that case clear in August, when talking about why his company chose Mississippi, in general and Brandon, specifically.

“The Greater Jackson area is poised to become a new hub for cloud computing and AI development, and we are delighted to partner with the city of Brandon to make a significant investment in expanding the region’s digital and energy infrastructure,” McComiskey said.

Interstate 20 across Mississippi may come to be known as the Data Center Corridor because of availble energy built by Entergy.

Prado’s plan for economic development

Prado, meanwhile, wants to have energy production on site, unlike what Entergy and Southern Company do with grids across the state. Prado’s plan, he said, also would not be like what Elon Musk’s XAI did with turbines that created severe noise pollution in North Mississippi.

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Prado said he has identified multiple sites in Mississippi for development of advanced AI industrial campuses, which would have AI semiconductor fabrication facilities and data center campuses.

The projects are structured, he said, so that electricity is not sold or resold, but instead provided as an “incidental component or real estate leasing arrangements”, which Prado said is consistent with Mississippi law.

If he is able to do that, Prado wants to take the data center economy to places that currently don’t have sufficiently built-out grids from Entergy or Southern Company, such as places in the Mississippi Delta or even Southwest Mississippi.

Prado is relying on language in Mississippi Code 77-3-3(d), which says that an entity is not a public utility and will not be treated as such if “it provides electricity to itself or to tenants as an incident of tenancy.”

The filing to the PSC states any of Prado’s power generation facilities will operate off-grid, serving only on-site electrical demand, with no electricity being sold to the public or third parties.

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“By self-generating energy on site, we ensure that 100% of the cost of powering AI semiconductor and AI cloud computing operations is borne by the company and is not passed on to Mississippi rate payers over time,” Prado said.

How is the power generated?

Samsung is doing something similar in Texas with a $17 billion project.

However, Prado has not fully explained the details of his project and how it will work.

“We are building long-term, environmentally responsible AI industrial infrastructure, not short-term fixes,” Prado said. “This is about doing it right from day one, with reliability, sustainability and community impact in mind.”

Who is Gabriel Prado?

To this point, Prado, who lives in Jackson, has only ventured into commercial real estate and development.

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In December 2024, Prado helped bring to life Topgolf, as the sports entertainment venue opened in Ridgeland with much fanfare as part of the Prado Vista development just off of I-55.

And while Topgolf is the drawing card for the development northeast of the Renaissance at Colony Park, the project has promise of more with shopping and an array of other options..

One of the outgrowths from Topgolf being the anchor of the 77-acre mixed-use development was to include office, retail and restaurant space, and the potential of homes for sale, among other things.

This new data center economy venture would seem to take the Belhaven University graduate to a different level of commitment in the business world of Mississippi.

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This is a developing story.

Charlie Drape contributed to this story.

Ross Reily is a writer for the Clarion Ledger, part of the USA TODAY Network. He can be reached at rreily@gannett.com or 601-573-2952. You can follow him on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter @GreenOkra1.



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Mississippi State advances to Super Regionals with 7-homer rout of Louisiana

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Mississippi State advances to Super Regionals with 7-homer rout of Louisiana


STARKVILLE, Miss. (WLBT) – Mississippi State hit seven home runs and scored 19 runs to defeat Louisiana 19-5 in the Starkville Regional final Sunday night.

Jacob Parker and Ryder Woodson each hit two home runs for the Bulldogs. Parker went 4-for-4 with four RBIs and five runs scored, while Woodson finished 3-for-4 with four RBIs.

Early power surge

Mississippi State took a 2-0 lead in the first inning on solo home runs by Gehrig Frei and Parker. Woodson added a solo homer in the second inning to make it 3-0.

Louisiana’s Nate Lewis hit a solo home run in the third inning to cut the lead to 3-1.

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Bulldogs pull away with four-run fourth

Mississippi State scored four runs in the fourth inning. Kevin Milewski drove in Reed Stallman with an RBI single, Frei added an RBI hit and Ace Reese hit a two-run homer to right-center to make it 7-1.

Woodson drove in a run with a single in the fifth inning. Louisiana scored one run in the sixth inning to cut the deficit to 8-3.

Five-run seventh extends lead

Mississippi State scored five runs in the seventh inning. Parker hit an RBI double, Vytas Valincius followed with an RBI double and Stallman hit an RBI triple. Woodson capped the inning with a two-run homer to left to extend the lead to 13-5 at the end of the seventh.

Parker, Valincius deliver final blows

Parker hit his second home run of the game in the eighth inning, a two-run shot that made it 15-5.

Valincius hit a grand slam in the ninth inning to push the lead to 19-5.

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Strong performances throughout lineup

Frei finished with four hits, three runs scored and two RBIs. Noah Sullivan had three hits and scored three runs.

Ryan McPherson pitched five innings for Mississippi State, allowing two runs on five hits with seven strikeouts and no walks.

Up Next

Mississippi State now heads to the Athens Super Regional where they will face 3-seed Georgia, a team that swept the Diamond Dawgs this season.

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