STARKVILLE — A year ago, the Mississippi State women’s basketball team found ways to win by battling back in the Postseason Women’s National Invitation Tournament.
Without three players who had key roles in those victories, the 2014-15 Bulldogs needed a spark Sunday to continue their magic in the WNIT. What they received were key contributions from a host of players down the stretch that helped them wrap up what they hope will be their first title of the season.
Ketara Chapel and Morgan William tied for team-high scoring honors with 17 points, and tournament MVP Victoria Vivians had 16 points and Dominique Dillingham added 10 to lift MSU to an 88-77 victory against Western Kentucky in the championship game of the Preseason WNIT before a crowd of 3,773 at Humphrey Coliseum.
“Unlike the last time I sat in here, I thought today we did get outhustled and out-toughed on a lot of possessions,” MSU coach Vic Schaefer said. “But with about seven minutes to go they just decided they’d had enough. … We got into attack mode and we made some really good decisions and we finally got some stops.”
The seventh-largest crowd in program history watched MSU (4-0) fall behind by as many as nine points with 13 minutes, 13 seconds remaining only to see a team with four first-year players playing significant minutes make up for the absence of seniors Martha Alwal, Kendra Grant, and Savannah Carter. Just like MSU found ways to beat Tulane, Southern Mississippi and Auburn in the Postseason WNIT last season, it continued to battle against a Western Kentucky team that forced 17 turnovers in the first half. Despite the mistakes, MSU regrouped in the second half and received a variety of sparks that helped it take the lead with less than seven minutes to play, hold on, and then pull away.
Chapel provided the first jolt when she took a charge on Tashia Brown with 7:10 remaining and WKU leading 69-68. One game after the team took eight charges against Arkansas State, the defensive play set the stage for Vivians to score on a drive against player-to-player defense that gave MSU its first lead since 30-28 with 5:47 to go in the first half.
Chapel, who joined Vivians on the all-tournament team, added two free throws, Vivians scored on another drive, and William drove and fed Chapel for a layup that helped MSU build the lead to five points before WKU cut it back to 76-75. But the Lady Hilltoppers committed two turnovers when they had a chance to take the lead. The second came on an offensive foul by Alexis Govan against Kayla Nevitt (seven points, three rebounds). Nevitt, a freshman guard who didn’t play Thursday in a 74-61 victory against West Virginia, followed with her biggest play, a jump shot off a screen to kick the lead to three points and send the Bulldogs on their way.
Dillingham and William added finishing touches down the stretch. Dillingham, who earlier in the half was encouraged by Schaefer to look for a better shot than a corner 3-pointer, drove the lane and double pumped to draw the fifth foul on Chastity Gooch with 2:41 to go. On the Bulldogs’ next possession, William drove the right lane, absorbed contact, and flipped the ball from her side off the glass. She converted the three-point play and hit 6 of 6 free throws in the final 1:56 to seal the deal.
“She is a great player,” Western Kentucky coach Michelle Clark-Heard said of William. “She is quick as lightning and can put it on the floor and is confident. … I take my hat off to them. When we went up, they kept coming at us. It was a game back and forth, and I think everybody saw a great game.”
Vivians said the trigger for MSU’s comeback came when WKU went to player-to-player defense, which allowed William, a 5-foot-5 freshman guard, to use her quickness to elude her defender and create scoring opportunities. William had seven turnovers, which was a credit to WKU’s 1-2-2, three-quarter court zone that it played most of the game.
“No one could guard her on that team,” Dillingham said. “She can break that press every time. I told her to keep going every time, just go. Go.”
William smiled as her teammates praised her ability to break the pressure. She returned the favors by complimenting her teammates and saying they put her in position to make things happen.
“Once I started driving, they started picking me up and then I think I got two easy assists on layups to Ketara,” William said. “They didn’t know what to do, so they went to a zone. I ran around the zone and got a foul and made an and-one and I got my momentum going.”
Govan and Gooch led WKU (3-1) with 20 points. Kendall Noble added 19 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, and two steals, but all three players fouled out, which hampered the Lady Hilltoppers’ comeback attempt. Noble and Gooch, who also had 14 rebounds, were named to the all-tournament team.
“I think we started rushing shots and doing some things, but I think we did an awesome job of following our game plan,” Clark-Heard said. “We just have to go back and clean up some things.”
WKU had 16 steals, but MSU committed only five turnovers in the second half and forced 13. As a result, WKU finished with a season-high 24 turnovers. The loss of Govan, who fouled out with 3:40 to play, and Gooch left WKU with fewer options to turn to against a MSU team that had nine players log double-digit minutes. All of WKU’s starters played at least 27 minutes, and none of its four bench players played more than eight minutes.
“I take my hat off to my team,” Clark-Heard said. “They played hard this whole tournament, and we were right there.”
Schaefer saw that from his team, too. He said he saw the extra effort down the stretch the Bulldogs needed to close out a tough game against an opponent that advanced to the NCAA tournament last season. Victories like this one are crucial to building a resume that is worthy of NCAA tournament consideration. Last season, MSU lost three games in overtime and six more by nine points or less.
On Sunday, Chapel, William, Dillingham, and Vivians agreed the spark the Bulldogs needed to pull away was “coming.”
“We just had to get stops,” Dillingham said. “Once we got 30 (Gooch) out of the game, we knew it was kind of over. Once everybody was on the same page defensively, it was coming for real.”
Even though there are a lot of new pieces to the puzzle, MSU showed it has the same tenacity last year’s squad had in the Postseason WNIT to find ways to win. That could prove a valuable trait in March when the Bulldogs hope to have all their pieces contributing and healthy to go dancing.
“It is fun to coach this team because you are watching them grow up before your eyes,” Schaefer said.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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