STARKVILLE — The approach sounds simple: Attack pressure with pressure.
Vic Schaefer has devised enough suffocating defenses to know nothing is as easy as it sounds, especially when you get into Southeastern Conference play.
But the fourth-year Mississippi State women’s basketball has enough confidence in his players to realize they can take an opponent’s best shot and give it right back to them. On Thursday, No. 7 MSU offered another example it can dish it out just as well as it can take it in a 60-45 victory against Auburn in its SEC home opener before a crowd of 4,610 at Humphrey Coliseum.
“It was just tremendous effort by our kids,” Schaefer said. “I am so proud of our kids. You talk about gutsy. I loved our aggression attacking them at times. Sometimes that shot clock would get down and get in a critical time, but we are blessed to have Victoria Vivians on our team. She can step back there and make a shot every now and then when the clock is going down.
“But when we really attacked that press we got layups. We made some really good decisions.”
Vivians, a sophomore guard, had 23 points and 10 rebounds for her fifth career double-double (first of the season). Freshman center Teaira McCowan added 10 points and 13 rebounds (eight offensive) in 19 minutes for her fifth double-double of the year.
The victory was especially sweet because MSU held Auburn (11-4, 1-1) to a season-low point total. The 45 points is the lowest total the Tigers have had in their series against the Bulldogs. Thursday’s game marked the third time MSU has limited Auburn to 45 points.
“Their zone press is relentless, but, you know what, so are my kids,” Schaefer said. “I just think I have some of the toughest kids in America. I just think we are resilient. Mo(rgan) makes a mistakes a looks right at me and goes, ‘That is me.’ Dom(inique Dillingham) knows. Dom is a but little more stubborn. She doesn’t admit mistakes as easy, but she knows. Victoria knows. When she leaves a lazy one in the middle of the floor, she knows. I just think e are tough and resilient. I am not going to battle with anybody else’s, and don’t want anybody else’s.”
MSU (15-1, 2-0 SEC) won its 10th-straight game thanks largely to an 18-5 second quarter in which it attacked with sophomore point guard Morgan William (seven points) and junior point forward Dominique Dillingham (seven points, four rebounds, two assists in 40 minutes). Dillingham also had defensive duty against junior guard Brandy Montgomery, the SEC’s leading scorer coming in at 18.4 points per game. Montgomery was 4 of 14 from the field and had a team-high 15 points.
A 14-1 run in the second quarter propelled the Bulldogs. William provided the acrobatics with a driving hook shot in which she absorbed contact and made the shot and then converted the three-point play. Vivians and Blair Schaefer added the long-distance marksmanship from 3-point range while William had her longest rest of the first half.
“I didn’t see the shot go in,” William said. “I didn’t know it went in until they came to me and started screaming, ‘Wow Mo.’
“Coach said attack and be aggressive and not to get back on our heels. We just started attacking. He said once you get past one, get past another. He said we would get easy layups once you broke a trap and it should be a three-on-one.”
When William returned with 2 minutes, 35 seconds remaining in the half, she helped set up another trey by Vivians. The score came after William penetrated and passed to Breanna Richardson, who kicked the ball to Vivians for the 3-pointer.
“I thought they got to the offensive glass where we had been boxing them out,” Auburn coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. “I thought they got to the offensive glass and got some second-chance points.”
MSU had 19 offensive rebounds and a 40-32 rebounding edge.
MSU relied on defense in the second half when it struggled on offense. After Auburn started quickly in the third quarter and cut a 16-point halftime deficit to five, MSU allowed only two field goals in the next seven-plus minutes stretching into the fourth quarter and re-built its lead to 52-38 on a layup by McCowan off a feed from William. The 5-foot-5 sophomore lobbed a pass to the 6-7 McCowan, who tipped it to herself and then used deft footwork to position herself for the layup.
Dillingham said going against constant pressure is something MSU sees all of the time in practice, even if it isn’t against only five players. She said the Bulldogs will go against six players in practice in an attempt to simulate the defenses they will see in games.
Williams-Flournoy said credited MSU’s depth for allowing it to stay fresh against her team’s pressure defense.
“That’s why we do what we do,” Williams-Flournoy said. “We are going to continue to wear teams down. We are always going to play that way. Some teams you wear down, some teams you don’t. Mississippi State has a very strong bench, so they had enough people. When you get to people that don’t have a strong bench, or a long enough bench, we can wear those teams down.”
Williams-Flournoy said she didn’t remind her team about its last game — a 66-61 victory against then-No. 7 Kentucky on Sunday. The Tigers trailed 30-13 in the second quarter before rallying. They forced 26 turnovers in that game. While MSU had its issues with the three-quarter court trap, it committed only 15 turnovers. The Tigers scored only six points off those mistakes.
On the other end, MSU forced Auburn into 25 turnovers, its third-highest total of the season. Those miscues led to 20 points for the Bulldogs.
“You’re not going to beat anyone turning the ball over 25 times and not getting to the free-throw line,” Williams-Flournoy said.
MSU was 15 of 19 from the free-throw line, while Auburn was a season-low 3 of 5.
MSU closed the game by holding Auburn to nine points in the fourth quarter.
“We not only played hard, but we played right,” Schaefer said. “That second and fourth quarter, that is a heck of a job by these kids.”
MSU will play host to Arkansas at 2 p.m. Sunday (SEC Network+) at Humphrey Coliseum.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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