STARKVILLE — Chinwe Okorie has put the backboards at Humphrey Coliseum through a lot in the last two-and-a-half seasons.
From First Deepwater of the Zenith League in her home country of Nigeria to Stoneleigh-Burnham School in Greenfield, Massachusetts, Okorie’s resume doesn’t have the level of experience of many of her peers on the Mississippi State women’s basketball team.
As a result, the 6-foot-5 center had a bigger adjustment to make than her classmates when she arrived as a member of coach Vic Schaefer’s first recruiting class in Starkville. Okorie’s transition to Division I basketball stalled in her freshman season as NCAA questions about her eligibility forced her to sit out the season.
Last season, Okorie showed the size, strength, and potential to be a force in the middle for the Bulldogs. She also displayed an ability to inflict harm on backboards from close range with a touch that sometimes lacked finesse.
But Okorie didn’t stop growing, learning, and refining her skills. Entering the 2015-16 season, Okorie said she was more confident in her ability to see the ball on the backboard better and to temper her strength when she shot it.
As Okorie has grown, so has the MSU women’s basketball team. There was no better example of that relationship Thursday night, as Okorie converted a timely offensive rebound and Morgan William added a layup in the waning seconds of the shot clock in overtime to send No. 13 MSU to a 65-63 victory against No. 19 Tennessee before a crowd of 5,710 at Humphrey Coliseum.
“She is growing right in front of us,” Schaefer said of Okorie. “Chinwe is slowing down and letting the game happen instead of rushing some things. We all have seen her rush that, but that rebound and stickback was huge.”
The win enabled MSU (18-4, 5-3 Southeastern Conference) to post its first victory in the 37-game history of its series against Tennessee (12-8, 3-4). MSU made history by erasing the memory of two double-overtime losses to LSU and Kentucky last season and decades of frustration against one of the game’s most storied programs.
Okorie (10 points, eight rebounds) played a starring role by making a play she admitted after the game that she wouldn’t have been able to make last season. With MSU trailing 62-61 in OT, MSU ran a half-court set for leading scorer Victoria Vivians (14 points, 4 of 16 from the field), who curled around a screen by Okorie on the left wing and attempted a 3-pointer. Tennessee’s Mercedes Russell, a 6-6 center, helped off Okorie and reached out to contest Vivians’ shot, which went off the back of the rim. Okorie didn’t give up on the miss and moved to box out the player who was guarding Vivians. The ball appeared to deflect high over Okorie’s head, but she reached back and somehow maintained her balance midway up the lane on the left side. Okorie looked like she was going to try to find a teammate, but then she heard something that changed her mind.
“I think it was fumbling in my hand first and then I just grabbed it,” Okorie said. “I didn’t know I was open, but then I heard Dominique (Dillingham) say, ‘Go back up, go back up,’ so I knew it was all clear. … I thought I was double-teamed, so when I heard her I just trusted her judgment.”
Okorie heeded Dillingham’s wishes and powered the ball back up to give MSU a 63-62 led with 1 minute, 53 seconds remaining.
“She is just like me. Sometimes whenever I miss, I get down on myself,” Dillingham said. “But it is just encouraging her to keep shooting it and focusing and not rushing it. She is going to make most of them, so it is just trusting her. She needs to trust us for her to take the shot, too.”
If the offensive rebound putback showed how much Okorie’s footwork and touch have improved, the next play reflected the evolution of her defense. Te’a Cooper missed a drive that Bashaara Graves rebounded in the lane. Instead of coming down with her arms in an attempt to stop Graves from shooting, Okorie stood straight up and stretched her arms as high as they could go. Okorie’s play forced a held ball that gave the ball back to MSU.
It was white-knuckle time from there. The Bulldogs milked the shot clock on their next possession and had just enough time left for William to drive the right side for a layup as the shot clock buzzer sounded with 1:05 remaining. Diamond DeShields (four points on 1-of-4 shooting in 30 minutes) hit 1 of 2 free throws with 45.1 seconds to go to set the stage for the finish.
MSU called timeout with 26.7 seconds to set up a final shot. Unable to get a quality shot at the end of regulation, MSU again didn’t get a great look at the basket, as Graves blocked a drive by William. The ball went off William out of bounds to give the ball back to Tennessee.
The Lady Volunteers made the most of the final 17 seconds and had a great look at the basket on a left-handed drive to the rim by Cooper (11 points), but her layup was too hard off the backboard. The ball caromed into the center of the lane, where a host of players from both teams tried to gain possession. The scrum continued until the final horn sounded that set off a celebration on the MSU sidelines that has been brewing since Feb. 22, 1986, the date of the first game against Tennessee.
Tennessee coach Holly Warlick praised the play of William, who had some of the game’s biggest shots despite going 4 of 17 from the field. The sophomore point guard had 11 points, seven assists, and four rebounds in 40 minutes. Warlick also said Okorie, who had two points in six minutes against Tennessee last season, was a difference-maker inside.
“I don’t recall her taking a bad shot,” Warlick said. “We couldn’t switch off her because of her size and her strength. I thought she did a great job. I thought she and Mercedes (Russell) battled pretty hard. Anytime you have a post in the paint that does what she does, it really opens it up for the outside. I thought she hit big buckets when they needed big buckets.”
Last season, Okorie’s size helped her establish position on the low block, but her shooting has betrayed her when she attempted to finish the play. As a result, she averaged 3.4 points per game and shot 42.6 percent from the field. She averaged 1.4 ppg. and shot 40.9 percent in 16 SEC games.
Okorie entered the game against Tennessee averaging 6.0 ppg. and shooting 59.3 percent from the field. Her ability to finish when it counted was just one of several key examples of growth by the Bulldogs. Another was a drive by Vivians on MSU’s second possession of OT. Often encouraged by Schaefer to go all the way to the rim and take contact, Vivians did just that, absorbing a hit by DeShields and going up on the right wing for a layup. She completed the three-point play to give MSU a 61-58 lead with 3:14 to play in the extra session.
“Coach is always talking about attack and don’t settle,” Vivians said. “Everybody was up, so I knew I had the baseline to myself. I just drove and there was contact and I got the and-one.”
Schaefer smiled as Vivians answered the question. One question later, he praised all of his players and said how much he loves this season’s team, even though the players sometimes drive him crazy. He couldn’t help smile after thinking his team was on “life support” trailing 55-43 entering the fourth quarter. Schaefer said he was “embarrassed” by his team’s play up until that point and then watched his team erase years of frustration and almosts against a perennial power. The fact that he said it was the first victory against Tennessee for him and for associate head coach Johnnie Harris made it even special.
Seeing a player like Okorie make such a huge contribution was a fitting ingredient on a history-making night in front of a national television audience.
“Chinwe is doing a great job,” Schaefer said. “She gave us some inside looks, also. In the first half, she wasn’t just posting, she was pinning and had them deep in the lane. That is a sign of growing up a little bit, too.”
Okorie hopes she can build on the effort. She said she knows she has the support of her teammates and her coaches, and knowing others believe in her makes it easier for her to work hard so she can continue to grow.
“Last year, I probably would have just stoned it hard on the backboard,” Okorie said. “(The confidence her teammates and coaches have in her) makes my ability to grow like 10 times and my confidence 10 times.
“Dominique has played in a lot of games. She is in my class, but I didn’t get to play my freshman year and she played. I respect all of the girls in my class — Ketara, Dominique, Bre(anna) — because they were there when I wasn’t even there. It is just so much trust it is amazing.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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