STARKVILLE — The vibes were high in Humphrey Coliseum early in the second quarter. 

Mississippi State women’s basketball center Madina Okot had just converted a layup off a sweet one-handed pass from Denim DeShields. It gave MSU its largest lead Sunday afternoon, an 11-point advantage over No. 2 South Carolina, the defending national champion. The Bulldogs’ fast start looked formidable. Maybe, just maybe, a triumphant upset and signature win for coach Sam Purcell was brewing. 

Then South Carolina turned into the team that’s lost just once in the past 1 1/2 seasons. The Gamecocks (14-1, 2-0 SEC) outscored Mississippi State 51-17 from that moment through the end of the third quarter to power toward a 95-68 victory.

The Bulldogs (13-3, 0-2) have lost consecutive conference games by at least 22 points with more ranked opponents like Oklahoma, Tennessee, Ole Miss and LSU looming in the next month. Purcell believes the Bulldogs have the right pieces, however, to compete at the top of the SEC. 

“I don’t think there’s really anything missing,” he said. “I really think it showed in the first quarter when you got 22-13 on the No. 1 team in the country that you have the pieces. Now, it’s just making sure that they handle it all right.”

What changed for Mississippi State in the second quarter

MSU took its 28-17 lead with 6:48 remaining in the second quarter. Four and a half minutes later, South Carolina took the lead and never gave it back. 

South Carolina shot 6-for-9 from 3-point range and didn’t commit a foul in the quarter.

“I think it started with sometimes the whistle goes your way, sometimes it doesn’t,” Purcell said. “I think we had zero whistle calls for us in the second quarter, and they had several. So then the game started slowing down. They got to the line, and you can’t have seven turnovers in one quarter. We talked about that. We value the ball. We know we’ve done so good, but we just had some dagger turnovers that allowed them to get some easy transition opportunities.”

Turnovers continue to be an issue for Mississippi State

Purcell warned before the season started that turnovers would be an issue, and it’s come to fruition. 

MSU committed 20 against South Carolina. The Gamecocks scored 23 points off those turnovers. It’s tied for the second most turnovers the Bulldogs have committed this season and the eighth time they’ve had at least 17 in a game. 

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Many of them are self-inflicted, too, such as off-target passes or simply bad decisions. 

Mississippi State commits 16.1 turnovers per game, fifth worst in the SEC. Eniya Russell, DeShields and Okot all have more than 40 turnovers this season.

“Watch film, watch film, watch film, watch film,” said Destiney McPhaul, who scored 14 points off the bench. “The way you get better is you watch to see what you did wrong, learn from it and talk about it. You are going to make mistakes. You ain’t going to be perfect, but turnovers have been our biggest issue so far. We got to take care of the ball.”

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