SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The Mississippi State women’s basketball team did just about everything it could to lose during the second half against SMU, thanks to a cold shooting touch and often mediocre defense.
But the eighth-ranked Bulldogs still prevailed, beating the Mustangs 72-70 on Monday in the Puerto Rico Classic.
Victoria Vivians scored 18 points and Ketara Chapel added 13 as MSU (11-1) won its third game in three days, and sixth straight overall.
MSU controlled most of the game and had a 65-54 lead entering the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs suffered through some cold shooting in the fourth quarter, scoring seven points, but they did enough on defense to secure the win.
“We just had a lot of things go wrong that could have spelled defeat, but it didn’t,” Mississippi State coach Vic Schaefer said. “We found a way to get a stop late.”
The Mustangs never led, but trailed just 71-70 with 10 seconds remaining and had the ball. They had three shots to try to win, but Gabrielle Wilkins’ 3-pointer missed, as did two putback attempts after offensive rebounds.
McKenzie Adams led SMU (5-6) with 21 points. Wilkins added 14. SMU committed 19 turnovers and allowed MSU to grab 22 offensive rebounds.
Vivians was 7 of 24 from the field, but added eight rebounds and a team-high four steals.
Chapel scored in double figures for the fourth-straight game for the first time in her career. Since a four-point showing in a victory against Louisiana Tech, Chapel has poured in 17, 13, 11, and 13 points. On Monday, she was 6 of 12 from the field, which matched the most shots she has attempted in a game at MSU. She raised her field goal shooting percentage to 63.8 percent in the win.
“My goal has been to be more aggressive,” Chapel said. “Coach showed me the film of some of my games from last season. The biggest thing is having more confidence and believing in my teammates.”
Schaefer said more confidence on the offensive end of the floor has been the key for Chapel.
“Ketara had a great tournament,” Schaefer said. “I called her in two weeks ago and showed her some stats from a year ago. She really responded. She has always been a great defender, but right now she plays with some great confidence on offense.”
Chinwe Okorie scored 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Morgan William scored nine points and had a team-high six assists.
Okorie capped a 10-0 run with a layup to give MSU an 18-5 lead. The Bulldogs stretched the lead to 27-12 on a basket by Vivians and a free throw by William.
MSU was 12 of 23 from the field in the opening quarter and led 31-21 at the end of the period.
A layup by Richardson ran the lead back to 39-25 with 6 minutes, 51 seconds left in the half. SMU later scored the final four points to close within 46-39 at halftime.
Vivians scored 16 points in the first half, shooting 4 of 7 from 3-point range. But she was 1 of 10 from the field in the second half, which helped SMU climb back into the game.
Vivians’ one second-half basket was crucial — she had a steal and layup with a little more than four minutes remaining to give the Bulldogs a 71-66 lead and slow the Mustangs’ rally.
“We had that mind-set that we weren’t going to give up and lose,” Chapel said.
MSU was 19 of 44 from the field (43.2 percent) in the first half and 10 of 30 (33.3 percent) in the second half. It had more offensive rebounds (22) than defensive rebounds (18).
SMU outscored MSU 21-8 on free throws, but it made only one 3-pointer.
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