DURHAM, N.C. — At 5-foot-9, Dominique Dillingham knows her limitations.
The sophomore guard from Spring, Texas, understands she can’t fly by opponents with blazing speed or jump over players like some of her peers in the Southeastern Conference.
But Dillingham never has allowed what she might not be able to do alter her hard-charging attitude. Call it persistence. You might refer to it as toughness. Opponents likely would call her a pest.
Regardless of how you say it, one thing is certain: Dominique Dillingham is the best defensive player on the Mississippi State women’s basketball team.
Dillingham proved it to a national television audience Friday by defending at least five players in No. 5 seed MSU’s 57-47 victory against No. 12 seed Tulane in the first round of the NCAA tournament at Cameron Indoor Stadium on the campus of Duke University.
Help from teammates
Breanna Richardson had a team-high 15 points (7-of-14 shooting from the field) and 12 rebounds for her third double-double of the season to help MSU improve to 27-6 in its first NCAA tournament appearance since the 2009-10 season. Morgan William added 14 points, five rebounds, four assists, and three steals to help set up a meeting against No. 4 seed Duke (22-10) at 11 a.m. today (ESPN2). Duke edged No. 13 seed Albany 54-52 on Friday.
The winner of today’s game will advance to the Sweet 16 in Spokane, Washington.
The crooked nature of Dillingham’s final stat line reflected her impact on the game. Dillingham had six points and seven rebounds and added two assists, one blocked shot, and three steals.
Dillingham’s energy level in 38 minutes rivaled any scene you can think of from your favorite action/adventure movie. She was on the court diving for loose balls. She was crashing into bodies in the paint to compete for rebounds. She was up in the face of players on the perimeter to deny open looks at the rim.
Suffice it to say Dillingham was everywhere in another effort MSU coach Vic Schaefer, the Bulldogs, and the team’s fans have come to expect.
“Their two guards (33 — Courtnie Latham — and 20 — Danielle Blagg) went 1-for-9,” Schaefer said. “Thirty-three has been averaging 13 points per game in the last three ballgames, so she did an unbelievable job on their two guards really shutting them down, and I thought Morgan was outstanding on 23 (Jamie Kaplan) and really made it difficult for her.”
Big defensive challenge
It would have been challenging for Dillingham if Schaefer had asked her to try to defend 6-2 junior center Chinwe Duru. Dillingham likely would have attacked that job with the same enthusiasm, even though she admitted after the game she didn’t think it would have been possible.
Dillingham laughed when she was asked if there was a Tulane player she didn’t guard. Even though she also spent time checking guards Kolby Morgan, Leslie Vorpahl, and Jamie Kaplan, Dillingham spent most of the time trying to stop Latham, who started, and Blagg, who came off the bench. Schaefer said he cautioned Dillingham prior to the game that she likely would have to defend 30 shots between the two guards because they likely wouldn’t be on the court at the same time.
“I told in the pre-game, ‘Dom, you’re going to be special today,’ ” Schaefer said. “I just really had a feeling. Games like this are when Dominique Dillingham and players like her come to the top and the cream rises. I felt like she was going to be special, and she was.”
In the first 10 minutes, Dillingham took a charge on Duru, had a steal against Latham, and had another steal against Blagg. The second steal reflected Dillingham’s mind-set because she didn’t allow Blagg to stand on the perimeter and look for an open teammate. Instead, she moved right up on her and reached in and simply took the ball away.
“I definitely wanted to be focused today because I know 20 is a big part of Tulane’s offense,” Dillingham said. “She is a shooter. She is going to shoot every time, so I wanted to be there every time. I just wanted to come up with the stops because I knew Tulane was going to push it every time and I wanted to be in the spots I needed to be.
“I knew I had to play good defense today for us to win.”
Dillingham also did plenty that wasn’t in the final stat line. She took another charge on Vorpahl, she forced a held ball with Duru, she forced Latham into an offensive foul, she blocked a shot by Blagg, she applied ball pressure against Vorpahl that forced her to step on the end line and turn the ball over.
Playing hard to the end
That list would have been enough for nearly anybody, but Dillingham was still at it with less than a minute go, fighting through a screen at the top of the key to try to deny Morgan an open 3-pointer.
“We knew from our scout that she was a great defensive player,” Kaplan said. “All of them play with great defense. We know she is a great defender, but I wouldn’t give her all of the credit. I would give their whole team the credit. They all played well.”
Said Morgan, “I do believe (Dillingham) was a main factor in their defense. As a whole team, they did a great job.”
Richardson said Dillingham’s effort is what the Bulldogs have come to expect from a player who isn’t the fastest or the strongest on the team, but she might be the most popular because she has an inner drive, or motor, as Schaefer calls it, that never stops.
“Dom has the toughest defensive challenge,” Richardson said. “She has to guard the best player every game. Sometimes we might start dead, (but) her getting a couple of quick steals when they are not paying attention, it gets us going. We need Dom. We love Dom, and we can’t play without Dom.”
True to her selfless nature, Dillingham expressed frustration at herself after the game when she mentioned a foul that was called on her when she was defending Blagg. Dillingham said she didn’t put herself in the right position and committed a foul that she shouldn’t have.
Schaefer smiled after Dillingham made that comment and said it was a sign she was “maturing right before your eyes.”
“I just think the kid is tough,” Schaefer said. “She is just a tough, physical basketball player. You have to love the kid. She is a wonderful student, but she is just a competitor. That is why I recruited her. I didn’t recruit her for her jump shot. I recruited her because she is a tough, physical, aggressive, basketball player. She is going to play at one speed. She is going to play it as hard as she can for as long as she can.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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