DURHAM, N.C. — Martha Alwal doesn’t want to have that feeling again.
Nearly a year ago, Alwal had five points and eight rebounds in the Mississippi State women’s basketball team’s game against South Florida in the quarterfinals of the Women’s National Invitational Tournament. Even though Alwal was more than disappointed with her performance, it nearly was part of what helped the Bulldogs extend their season. Courtney Williams ended those hopes with a 3-pointer just before the final buzzer than lifted USF to the victory.
As much as Alwal hoped for more from herself against USF, she had the security in knowing she had another season to do better.
A lackluster effort today, though, will mean the end of Alwal’s college career.
That’s why the senior center is focused on doing even more to help No. 5 seed MSU (27-6) when it takes on No. 4 seed Duke (22-10) at 11 a.m. today (ESPN2) in the second round of the NCAA tournament at Cameron Indoor Stadium on the campus of Duke University.
Ready to play
Alwal feels confident she will be able to deliver more than the four points and five rebounds she had Friday in a 57-47 victory against Tulane in the first round of the NCAA tournament, even if it means she has to do it against four-time All-America center Elizabeth Williams.
“I’m not really nervous about going against Elizabeth,” Alwal said. “Elizabeth Williams is a great player, but I’ve been going up against great players all year round (in the Southeastern Conference), so I’m not really nervous about going up against her.”
Alwal, who is 6-foot-4, also said she isn’t fazed by the idea she will have to stay out of foul trouble — she played only 22 minutes against Tulane — or she will have to be more physical against a front line that includes Williams (6-3), freshman forward Azura Stevens (6-5), senior forward Amber Henson (6-4), freshman forward Erin Mathias (6-4), and sophomore forward Kendall Cooper (6-4). Duke also has size in the backcourt with senior guard Ka’lia Johnson (5-10) and redshirt freshman guard Rebecca Greenwell (6-1).
“They’re all so huge,” Alwal said. “We have a few teams in the SEC that are big, but most of the time they’re not, so I kind of get away with playing not as physical as I should. I guess (today) I’ll just have to go out there and do all I can.”
MSU coach Vic Schaefer said Alwal’s teammates will play a key role in helping Alwal have a bigger impact. Alwal attempted only four shots against Tulane. Three of them were in the first 3 minutes, 8 seconds. He has said several times this season that the Bulldogs have failed to pass the ball inside when their post players have great position. He said it again Friday.
“We run a play two times in a row and Martha has her pinned almost in the next county and we can’t get her the ball,” Schaefer said. “We’re just looking for the wrong person. Martha needed more than four shots.”
MSU made up for Alwal’s lack of production and the struggles of freshman guard Victoria Vivians, who was 2 of 14 from the field and had seven points in 22 minutes. Vivians entered the game as MSU’s leading scorer (15.1 points per game).
Getting the job done
MSU overcame those two elements by holding Tulane to a season-low 13 field goals and 27.7 percent (13 of 47) from the field. The Bulldogs also forced 20 turnovers and had eight steals. While they might have had a less-than-stellar offensive outing (28.6 percent shooting in the first half), MSU played a strong game defensively and was active all game.
Tulane coach Lisa Stockton said the presence of Alwal enables MSU to play aggressively on the perimeter and to deny passing lanes. She said her team didn’t handle the Bulldogs’ style of play as well as would have liked, which she said was frustrating because it has typically plays Southeastern Conference teams in the regular season.
How Duke handles MSU’s defense remains to be seen. The Bulldogs have primarily played player-to-player defense all season. And while Albany had success against Duke on Friday by using a 2-3 zone defense, Schaefer said that might not work for his team because it hasn’t played zone very often.
“I think we have to hang our hat on what we do and be convicted to what we do,” Schaefer said. “We’ll probably tweak a couple of things (Saturday). I think we’ve got a team that will be able to handle that in one practice, but, at the same time, you’ve got to play and it’s Mississippi State doing what we do playing against Duke doing what they do.”
Duke coach Joanne P. McCallie said her team learned a valuable lesson from its 54-52 victory against No. 13 seed Albany. The Blue Devils used a held ball to gain possession and then scored on a 3-pointer off an inbounds play by Greenwell (20 points) with 14.3 seconds remaining to earn the victory. Albany missed an open 3-pointer from the right wing just before time expired. Albany scored 33 points off 27 Duke turnovers.
“I think we learned some great lessons from yesterday’s game, and I think that is good for us,” McCallie said. “The sign of an excellent team is a team that moves on quickly but takes some lessons and applies them to the next game, so we are looking forward to playing.”
Johnson expects MSU to pressure Duke today. She said teams all season have looked at the Blue Devils’ size and have tried to use pressure to knock them off their game. But she feels Duke has enough experience and ballhandlers to learn from its last victory and to make improvements before facing another team that could use a similar approach.
Alwal hopes she will be able to learn from past lessons, too. The last time Alwal attempted fewer shots than she did against Tulane was Jan. 8, when she was 1 of 1 from the field in a victory against Arkansas. At the time, she was still working her way back into form after offseason back surgery. She was 5 of 7 from the field in the next game, a loss to Vanderbilt, and then didn’t play in a home loss to LSU after Schaefer opted not to play her. She scored in double figures (three double-doubles) in nine of the Bulldogs’ last 12 games prior to the NCAA tournament.
Sophomore forward Breanna Richardson, who led MSU with 15 points and 12 rebounds against Tulane, has confidence Alwal will be able to play a big role today and help the offense find its rhythm.
“I think Martha has been working pretty hard in the post. We’ve just been missing opportunities,” Richardson said. “Like coach said, we didn’t get (her) as many touches as we should have, so I think we just have to try to feed her more and try to give her more opportunities.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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