STARKVILLE — The swagger is back.
When Morgan William burst onto the Division I scene last season, she did it with a flair that dared defenses to stop her. She backed up that confidence with a lightning-quick first step and nifty ballhandling that helped her score in double figures in seven of her first nine games with the Mississippi State women’s basketball team.
William’s comment following a 29-point performance in a victory against Arkansas State set the tone for an electrifying freshman season.
“If somebody stops me, which they rarely do, I just know I have to go and drive because coach always says nobody can stop me, so I try to drive and get the foul, or drive and dish it,” William said.
Seven games into her sophomore season, William had reached double digits only once. While she was running the team and handing out assists with poise, William wasn’t looking for her shot or challenging defenders. That all changed last month when MSU coach Vic Schaefer talked with William and junior forward Ketara Chapel and encouraged them to get back to the way they played last season when they were making their biggest contributions.
William has heeded Schaefer’s call for more offense and has done her best to return to the hard-charging creator that powered the Bulldogs to a program-record 27-win season in 2014-25.
William offered another example of her plucky leadership Monday, scoring a game-high 16 points and handing out five assists to lead No. 10 MSU to a 79-51 victory against Ole Miss before a crowd of 7,128 at Humphrey Coliseum.
The second-largest crowd in program history watched MSU (17-2, 4-1 Southeastern Conference) earn its largest margin of victory in its 90th meeting against Ole Miss. The Bulldogs have won four in a row in the series and 10 of the last 12, including nine in a row in Starkville.
“Morgan William is the engine that makes their train,” Ole Miss coach Matt Insell said. “I told them all that. I told them you cannot let that engine get going, and we let that engine get going.”
William caught fire in the opening minute by scoring on a drive to the rim for the game’s first points that gave MSU a lead it never relinquished. One possession later, she added another driving layup against junior guard Erika Sisk, one of Ole Miss’ best defenders, but she left the game 45 seconds later to tend to a “knot” in her leg. Freshman point guard Jazzmun Holmes led the Bulldogs for nearly the next four minutes before William returned to a 1-2-2 zone defense. On MSU’s second possession, she helped the Bulldogs get going again when she fed Kayla Nevitt for a 3-pointer.
“Morgan is someone we rely on heavily,” Schaefer said. “Her energy and the way she plays and how hard she plays — she is physical, too, for her size. I thought she set the tone tonight. She got the first two or three baskets on driving layups, and she set the tone for how aggressive we were going to be in getting to the rim.”
Schaefer said he challenged William before the game to get to the free-throw line 11-12 times. When she is at her best, William is creating havoc in individual matchups or finding gaps in zones. Her 29-point effort in a 93-83 victory against Arkansas State in the Preseason Women’s National Invitation Tournament on Nov. 14, 2014, still stands as her career high in part because she was 13 of 16 from the free-throw line. The number of made free throws and attempts remain her best one-and-a-half seasons into her MSU career. Last season, she had she four games when she attempted 10 or more free throws. Her 9-of-10 showing from the free-throw line against Ole Miss was the first time she hit double digits in free throw attempts this season.
Still, William has found a way to spark the Bulldogs on offense. Since last month, she has scored in double figures in seven of MSU’s 12 games. Her highest scoring game of the season — a 21-point effort against Florida — came in that stretch. That game came on the heels of a 15-point effort against then-No. 20 South Florida when she was 7 of 8 from the free-throw line.
William also can get it done from the field. Last season, she delivered a dagger with a sweet between-the-legs dribble and step-back jump shot to beat Ole Miss 64-62 in Oxford.
“It’s Ole Miss. We don’t want to lose to them,” William said. “I don’t want to lose to them while I am here. Coach always says, ‘It’s a big game,’ so you don’t want to lose to them. It is our state.”
In addition to doing it on offense, William has a knack for being just as much of a pest on defense. An ideal example came in the third quarter after MSU weathered a spurt by Ole Miss that saw the Rebels cut the Bulldogs’ lead to 13 points. William helped squash Ole Miss’ momentum by taking a charge on Madinah Muhammad. A little more than a minute later, William drained a 3-pointer off a pass from Breanna Richardson (eight points, seven rebounds in 17 minutes) to kick the lead back to 53-34.
MSU junior Dominique Dillingham said William is by far the leader on the team in charges taken. She said the 5-foot-5 floor general from Birmingham, Alabama, sets the standard for the rest of the Bulldogs with her energy and effort.
“I think she gives us confidence on the offensive end,” Dillingham said. “When she is going, nobody can stop her, and when she is going, I don’t think anybody can stop us. I think she means that much to us.”
Insell offered William a compliment later in his post-game news conference when he said he hoped Ole Miss freshman guard Alissa Alston follows William’s lead and becomes that kind of player.
Last season, William served as an apprentice to senior point guard Jerica James. Coming off the bench in all 34 games gave William a chance to see how opponents were playing so she was prepared when she entered the game. This season, William, who is a team captain, is acting as a mentor to Holmes. The tandem of William and Holmes had one of its best games of the season with 11 assists.
“I don’t think there is any doubt our point guard play tonight was outstanding,” Schaefer said.
Chinwe Okorie had a SEC-high 14 points and seven rebounds, while Teaira McCowan had 10 points, four rebounds, and three blocked shots. Victoria Vivians had eight points and nine rebounds, which snapped her streak of 17-straight games scoring in double figures. Kayla Nevitt added nine points and Chapel had eight for MSU, which shot 49.1 percent (28 of 57) from the field. It was the first time in the last 10 games the Bulldogs have shot 45 percent or better from the field, and sixth time this season.
Shandricka Sessom led Ole Miss (9-9, 1-4) with 14 points. Madinah Muhammad added 10 and A’Queen Hayes had nine points and nine rebounds for the Rebels, who had the second-lowest scoring output of the season.
William had her hand in that statistic, too, as MSU forced 16 turnovers that led to 27 points. Armed with a white cushion that looked like a volleyball knee pad on her right shin, William praised the work of MSU Director of Sports Medicine Mary McLendon for helping work the “knot” out of her leg. McLendon’s magic helped William deliver another impactful performance, even if it was only in 26 minutes.
“I just kept attacking,” William said. “She kept giving me the lane, so I attacked again and got another basket (at the start of the game). When I am aggressive, I can get to the free-throw line, or it draws attention to me and I can get my teammates open shots.”
NOTES: MSU, which won its 16th-straight game at Humphrey Coliseum, will play at 6 p.m. Thursday at Georgia. It will return home to play host to No. 2 South Carolina at 4 p.m. Sunday (ESPN2) in what is being billed as “History At The Hump.” … At 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, MSU will hold another Hail State Hoops Luncheon at Mize Pavilion. Fans can RSVP by phone 662-325-0198 or email at [email protected]. The cost for each luncheon is $12 per person.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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