Flyers women’s basketball struggles from the field in Thanksgiving loss to Mississippi State
Sophomore guard Makira Cook (white jersey, pictured Nov. 5 against IUP) was a bright spot for the Flyers with 16 points in their 65-54 loss to Mississippi State on Thursday. Photo courtesy of Keegan Gupta, Flyer News.
Peter Burtnett | Sports Editor
On Thanksgiving Day from Daytona Beach, Fla., the Dayton Flyers women’s basketball team fell 65-54 to Mississippi State, finishing the game 33 percent from the field in a tough loss.
The Flyers got out to a quick 4-0 lead, but the Bulldogs answered with a 9-0 run to push ahead by five with 4:38 left in the first quarter.
Over the remainder of the quarter, Dayton cut the deficit to two with scoring from five different players to trail 16-14. Leading the Flyers was sophomore guard Makira Cook with five first quarter points.
In the second, however, the Bulldogs were lethal over a four-minute stretch, making six straight field goals to push their advantage to 12. Although they missed six of seven shots to close the quarter, Mississippi State took a 31-23 lead into the break. In the first half, the Flyers shot just 27.3 percent from the field and turned the ball eight times, while the Bulldogs shot 41.9 percent and had six turnovers.
The Bulldogs promptly pushed their lead to ten, but missed seven straight field goals as the Flyers trimmed the deficit to 38-32 when the Bulldogs called timeout with 4:12 remaining in the third quarter.
The Flyers made four of five field goals to close the third quarter and trailed just 45-41 heading into the final quarter.
After the Flyers made a layup to trim the deficit to two, the Bulldogs went on a 7-0 run to push the lead to 52-43 with eight minutes left.
The Flyers would stick around, never trailing by more than 11 down the stretch, but ultimately fell short to the Bulldogs defense and the scoring of Rickea Jackson (20 points), Myah Taylor (16) and Anastasia Hayes (11) in a 65-54 loss. Cook led the Flyers with 16 points, and graduate guard Erin Whalen added 12.
With the loss, the Flyers fall to 3-2 and face Illinois at 2:15 p.m. on Friday in the Daytona Beach Invitational.
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