KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The nickname Miss March suits Teaira McCowan just fine.
A year ago, McCowan broke out on the national stage with a standout effort against Washington and a solid performance against Baylor to push the Mississippi State women’s basketball team to its first Final Four.
The 6-foot-7 junior center is showing those performances are just the beginning of her stellar play in March Madness.
McCowan had a team-high 24 points and a game-high 15 rebounds Friday night to lead No. 1 seed MSU to a 71-57 victory against No. 4 seed North Carolina State in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament’s Kansas City Regional at the Sprint Center.
“This time of year you lose and you go home and you basically start over, so my team and my seniors — the four I got — I’m trying to make it the best it can be and go as far as possible,” McCowan said.
The victory helped MSU (35-1) eclipse the single-season record for wins set in 2016-17. It also pushed MSU to the Elite Eight for the second-straight season, where it will face No. 3 seed UCLA, which beat No. 2 seed Texas 84-75, at 6:30 p.m. Sunday (ESPN). The winner of that game will advance to the Final Four on March 30 in Columbus, Ohio.
McCowan led the way with her 26th double-double of the season. In the process, she tied the NCAA tournament field goal percentage record set by Saint Joseph’s Terry Carmichael on March 15, 1985, in a first-round game against North Carolina State.
“You saw the value of Teaira McCowan when we lost her in the tournament championship game,” MSU coach Vic Schaefer said of a 62-51 loss to South Carolina in the title game of the Southeastern Conference tournament on March 4. “She cleans up a lot of your mess. She cleans up your missed shots, your dribble penetration that you give up, blocked shots, altered shots, turn around and get out of there, you know, so her value to our basketball team is — you can’t put a price tag on it. “Tonight, I loved the look in her eye tonight. There was some times where she wasn’t going to be denied.”
McCowan helped turn the tide with 12 points in the second quarter. Her ability to assert herself in the paint was critical because North Carolina State (26-9) battled back from a 17-7 deficit in the first quarter to take a 20-19 lead at the 7-minute, 58-second mark of the second quarter.
That’s when Miss March took over.
McCowan rebounded a miss by Victoria Vivians (14 points, five rebounds, three assists) and scored. She rebounded another miss by Vivians and scored again. Following a layup by Jazzmun Holmes, McCowan turned into the lane without a dribble and scored. She followed with two free throws and then added a catch and turn to her left into the lane for another score.
McCowan capped the quarter with a turnaround bank shot that helped MSU take a 36-31 halftime lead.
North Carolina State’s Akela Maize picked up her second foul at the 7:43 mark of the second quarter and was forced to sit out the remainder of the half. The 6-5 senior center said the Wolfpack tried multiple defenses in an attempt to contain McCowan.
“The plan at first was to push her up, make her uncomfortable way from the block so she can’t just turn around and shoot it and also keeping her off the offensive boards,” Maize said. “The plan did change. We started the second half sitting in front of her and trying to deny her the ball all together, so that worked out pretty well for the most part. But, yeah, she had a heck of a game. Congrats to her.”
Maize said McCowan’s strength was the biggest surprise about trying to defend her. She said McCowan “was really strong” as she recorded the 36th double-double of her career and third-straight double-double in the NCAA tournament. Last season, McCowan had 26 points, 12 rebounds, and six blocked shots against Washington last season in her only double-double of the NCAA tournament.
This season, McCowan is focused on shattering that record, just like she obliterated the program’s previous mark of 20 double-doubles in a season (LaToya Thomas).
North Carolina State coach Wes Moore said the Wolfpack didn’t have an answer for McCowan.
“In the first half, we did try to double and we just didn’t do a good job of getting there,” Moore said. “I think part of it was we let the ball enter from the top. Whenever we are doubling we have to make the pass come in from the wing and our post has to get up on the high side, and we didn’t get that done well enough. Consequently when it comes in from the top it’s hard to double.”
Morgan William added 13 points and eight assists (one turnover) in 32 minutes, while Roshunda Johnson had 12 points for MSU, which shot 52.8 percent (28-for-53) from the field. It was the Bulldogs’ highest shooting percentage from the field since a 54.4-percent shooting effort in a 95-50 victory against Vanderbilt on Feb. 15.
MSU used a 22-10 third quarter to pull away and coast to victory.
Kiara Leslie had a game-high 27 points for the Wolfpack. She was her team’s only double-figure scorer.
Schaefer praised McCowan, a first-team All-SEC pick by the media and the coaches, for operating at a high level on both ends of the court all season. He reiterated the claim he made after the second-round win against Oklahoma State that McCowan deserves to be a first-team All-American.
“I don’t know that I’ve seen anybody go 11-for-11,” Schaefer said. “Teaira went 11-for-12 against Florida her sophomore year, but to do it in the NCAA tournament game, 24 and 15 but, look, it’s old hat. I said it the other day, whoever is on the committee, whoever is voting, if she’s not a First Team All-American, then they need to get rid of the daggum award. She has done it against the best competition in the country, all year long.
“She does it with two and three people hanging on her. Let’s just forget, OK, she is getting the rebounds and the points, she alters the points and a lot of times she goes into the lane and the guards back up. Just the impact that kid has in a ballgame is incredible.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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