DALLAS — Ketara Chapel, Dominique Dillingham, Chinwe Okorie, and Breanna Richardson helped transform the Mississippi State women’s basketball program.
All four players believed in a vision Vic Schaefer was selling entering his second season and coming off a 13-17 finish. The four seniors helped Schaefer realize that vision by playing integral roles in helping the Bulldogs win more games in each of the last four seasons. Going from 22 to 27 to 28 to 34, that run ended Sunday night with a 67-55 loss to South Carolina in the NCAA tournament national championship game before a crowd of 19,229 at American Airlines Center.
“It just shows how hard not only the four seniors have worked to get to this point, but also everybody from the staff to our fans,” Chapel said. “They have been rooting hard for us to get to this point. I am just grateful to get to this point. Who would have thought Mississippi State would have been playing for the national championship tonight?”
Chapel, Dillingham, Okorie, and Richardson wrapped up their career as the all-time winningest class in program history with a record of 111-34. That total is the second-best total in the Southeastern Conference.
Among all of the records the Bulldogs set this season, they finished with a single-season record for points (2,961) and assists (574).
Individually, Richardson finished her career 18th on MSU’s all-time scoring list (1,082 points), She also was eighth on the program’s all-time rebounding list (727), and the 10th player to eclipse 1,000 points and 650 rebounds.
Dillingham finished her career 25th on the all-time scoring list (1,013). She is fourth on the all-time list in steals (210).
“These three seniors (in the post-game news conference) are very, very special,” Schaefer said. “Along with Chinwe, they believed in a vision five years ago. … These kids believed. They made it happen. We didn’t get here by accident. We came through a really tough regional. These kids deserve all the credit for that.”
Taking the blame
True to his nature, Schaefer accepted responsibility for not having MSU in the right defensive game plan to counter South Carolina’s attacking style.
The Gamecocks had a 42-20 edge in points in the paint and attempted only three 3-pointers. They didn’t make one.
“I just didn’t have a really good matchup on the ball today,” Schaefer said. “It’s always been my philosophy if you got somebody soft on the ball, it’s hard to get four behind you to play really hard.”
Schaefer also talked about the difficulty of guarding South Carolina’s big guards like Kaela Davis and Allisha Gray, although Gray was playing more in the post due to the absence of Alaina Coates. The absence of the 6-foot-4 center didn’t appear to slow the Gamecocks, who looked at home with more space to create off the dribble.
Schaefer said the Bulldogs’ inability to defend the high screen-and-roll played a part in the Gamecocks’ effectiveness.
“We didn’t handle the ball screen well today,” Schaefer said.
This and that
MSU continued a streak that has seen the last five teams that have defeated Connecticut in the NCAA tournament lost their next game. South Carolina continued a streak that has seen the last five teams that have defeated Stanford in the Final Four win their next game. … The national title game was the first since 2006 without UConn, Notre Dame, or Tennessee. … The matchup marked the first time two Southeastern Conference schools met in the national championship game since Tennessee and Georgia in 1996. It was the third time two SEC schools have met for the championship, and the sixth time teams from the same conference have met for a NCAA women’s title. UConn beat then-Big East Conference rival Louisville in 2013 in the last such matchup. … MSU is the third school Schaefer has taken to the Final Four. He was part of the coaching staffs of head coach Gary Blair that helped Arkansas and Texas A&M reach that point. Texas A&M won the national title in 2011.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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