STARKVILLE — The Mississippi State women’s basketball team needs Dominique Dillingham on the court.
At 5-foot-9, Dillingham is far from the biggest Bulldog. She probably also wouldn’t win a competition for the fastest or the quickest player on the team.
But it’s hard to disagree that Dillingham has the biggest heart on the team. It’s also impossible to find another MSU player who always seems to be in the middle of things making big plays.
Dillingham showed again in the final 2 minutes, 7 seconds Thursday why she is so valuable, making a basket to tie the game, stealing an inbounds pass, and playing aggressive defense on the other team’s best player to help No. 22 MSU rally for an 81-77 victory against Louisiana Tech before a crowd of 3,012 at Humphrey Coliseum.
Dillingham had only six points, but she stuffed her boxscore with enough things — eight rebounds, two blocked shots, and five steals (one off her career high) — in a team-high 36 minutes to help MSU (9-0) overcome its poorest shooting percentage of the season (23 of 65, 35.4 percent).
“She has got a nose for the ball,” MSU coach Vic Schaefer said. “She was that way when I was watching her in recruiting. She is always in the middle of whatever is going on. She is a competitor.”
Trailing 77-75, MSU looked to be in trouble in its half-court offense after a pass appeared to go through the hands of center Chinwe Okorie (11 points, 14 rebounds) and deflected to the left side of the court. Dillingham collected the ball and saw an opportunity to attack the basket for a layup that tied the game with 2:07 remaining.
“Chinwe kind of tipped it out, and I think they kind of relaxed on defense and I saw an opening and just drove,” Dillingham said.
After the game, Dillingham agreed that she seems to have a sense of where to be to get the ball. She isn’t sure if it is intuition or just a knack for being in the right place at the right time. It also could be about making things happen, which is what the sophomore from Spring, Texas, has done in all 45 games (30 starts) in her first year and a half in Starkville.
“I think I have quick hands, too, and always know where the ball is going to be,” Dillingham said.
MSU had a turnover and Louisiana Tech missed two shots with the game tied and time winding down. Kendra Grant hit 1 of 2 free throws with 1:05 left after she slipped following contact with Kelia Shelton. Dillingham again found herself in the perfect position to intercept an inbounds pass that gave MSU a chance to extend its lead.
After being bogged down in the half-court offense for most of the evening, the Bulldogs again appeared to be in trouble. With the shot clock winding down, the ball worked from the left to the middle to senior center Martha Alwal, who passed it back up top to Ketara Chapel. The sophomore forward said she didn’t have time to look up at the shot clock above the backboard and just went to the goal.
“I just heard the bench counting down, so I was like, ‘I am not going to settle for a jump shot,’ just attack the basket,” said Chapel, who had 13 points. “I was scared. I didn’t think I was going to make it.”
Chapel’s length helped her get past her defender and lay the ball in with one second remaining on the shot clock and 19.6 seconds left in the game.
“Ketara makes a very big shot down the stretch,” Schaefer said, “which is what you need. Great players got to make great plays. When it counts, she makes a big bucket.”
Shelton (game-high 31 points on 11-of-21 shooting) tried her best to work more magic. The 5-foot-8 senior guard entered the game shooting 28.8 percent from the field. She used her size and strength to drive on MSU’s smaller point guards Jerica James and Morgan William. When matched against Dillingham, she tried to elevate over her, like she did with 13 seconds with the Lady Techsters (3-4) trailing 80-77. Shelton’s shot from the top of the key hit the back iron, bounced up and hit the front of the iron, and then ricocheted off the side iron and out. Whitney Frazier rebounded the miss and Louisiana Tech called timeout. MSU called timeout after seeing the play coach Tyler Summitt designed. The play called for Shelton, who was on the left low block, to run off a screen and attempt a 3-pointer. But MSU switched on the screen. Dillingham said she passed Shelton off to Ketara Chapel, who guarded her when she went to the top of the key after not having any daylight to receive the inbounds pass. Instead, the pass went to Jaquan Jackson in the right corner, but her shot was long to the weak side.
Fittingly, Dillingham was there to corral the rebound. She passed it to William (10 points), who hit 1 of 2 free throws to seal the deal.
“We had all 3-point shooters in because we thought they were going to switch, which they did, so we were trying to run Kelia Shelton off a screen and another screen,” said Summitt, the son of longtime Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt. “They ended up doubling her, so we got it to Jaquan Jackson, who had a semi-open shot, a little bit contested.
“We wanted to get a three. I probably didn’t want it that contested, but again I was proud them for taking the shot and being there at the end.”
Schaefer didn’t have much to be pleased with following the game. The veteran coach, whose nickname is “Secretary of Defense,” criticized his team’s defense and said the Bulldogs don’t have five players committed to playing on that end of the floor. The comments came after a night when Louisiana Tech repeatedly beat MSU down the court and pushed the tempo whenever it wanted. The Lady Techsters also made the majority of the hustle plays, only it wasn’t enough to spring the upset.
“It was really a frustrating night, for the most part, for the Bulldogs,” Schaefer said.”We didn’t shoot it well, we didn’t play well, and it starts with the head coach. I didn’t have them ready to play tonight. I could see it in the shootaround today. That is my responsibility. I didn’t do a very good job getting us ready to play, and it showed very much tonight for most of the ballgame.
“In the end, we made enough plays to win and, again, Louisiana Tech really played well.”
Victoria Vivians led MSU with 20 points on 4-of-18 shooting from the field. The freshman guard was 10 of 11 from the free-throw line as part of the Bulldogs’ 33-for-46 showing (71.7 percent) at the line.
MSU will play at 2 p.m. Sunday at Southern Mississippi. It will play host to Mississippi Valley State at 7 p.m. Monday.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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