JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Toughness.
After waiting 36 games to earn its first victory in program history against Tennessee, the Mississippi State women’s basketball team wasn’t going to let another opportunity slip away.
Victoria Vivians had a game-high 30 points, and Morgan William added 12 to lead No. 16 and third-seeded MSU to a 58-48 victory against Tennessee in the semifinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament at Veterans Memorial Arena.
Dominique Dillingham added eight points, and Chinwe Okorie had a team-high 11 rebounds to help push MSU (26-6) into a matchup against No. 3 and top-seeded South Carolina (30-1) at 1:30 p.m. today (ESPN). South Carolina beat fifth-seeded Kentucky 93-63.
“They are tough, hard-nosed kids with a competitive fire and a competitive spirit,” MSU coach Vic Schaefer said. “They are just a pleasure to coach. I couldn’t be prouder today to be the head coach at Mississippi State and prouder of these kids. These kids deserve all of the credit today.”
MSU earned its second victory in program history in the 38th meeting between the teams 38 days after it earned its first win. It did it by holding Tennessee to its lowest point total in the history of the series. The Lady Volunteers were 18 of 64 from the field (28.1 percent). The percentage was Tennessee’s second-lowest output of the season. The 18 field goals also tied the second-lowest mark for the Lady Volunteers.
“They wouldn’t be denied,” Schaefer said. “They played their hearts out and competed every possession.”
Schaefer ranked the toughness quotient in the top two or three efforts in his four seasons in Starkville. He brought up the 57-51 loss to South Carolina on Jan. 24 as a game that compared to the level of toughness his team showed against Tennessee. In fact, he said the toughness probably was the most his team has delivered in a victory.
MSU rode the hot shooting of Vivians, who was 11 of 20 from the field, including 5 of 10 from 3-point range. It was her second 30-point game of the season, and third of her career.
“When Victoria got hot, you start pulling out your play card and you start trying to find everything you can run to get her a shot or a look,” Schaefer said. “They were guarding her extremely hard in the halfcourt, but we were getting her some stuff in transition, but it all starts on the defensive end. We can’t get that going in transition without defending. Again, I thought we were outstanding defensively. They shot 20 percent in the fourth quarter when the game was on the line.”
Vivians took the game over in the third quarter, scoring MSU’s first 11 points and helping push the lead to 36-26 with 5 minutes, 42 seconds remaining. But Tennessee hung around even after missing four free throws to trim the deficit to 43-37 by the end of the quarter.
“Everything just happened that way,” Vivians said of her hot streak in the third quarter. “Like coach said, we’ve got to come out and throw the first punch and keep fighting. Whatever happens happens. The team came out. We played hard. I started knocking down shots. I guess it kept going from there.”
Things got tighter in the fourth quarter, as Tennessee (19-13) cut the deficit to 43-41 on 1 of 2 free throws by Diamond DeShields (team-high 22 points) with 8:17 left to play.
From there, though, MSU clamped down on defense and ignored at least three occasions when a lot of the orange-clad fans in the crowd of 5,632 rose in unison in an attempt to spark the Lady Volunteers. Instead. MSU limited Tennessee to 1 of 12 from the field and slowly pulled away.
“Coach said, ‘Over and not by you,’ ” Dillingham said of MSU’s defense. “I think we really focused on that tonight and kept them in front of us. I think we did really good.
“They obviously had a lot of fans tonight. I think our fans were even louder tonight when we did good things. Our fans were incredible tonight, and they were behind us the whole game.”
While the defense went on lock down, Vivians went into attack mode and worked into the gaps in the defense to draw fouls. William and Dillingham also hit big shots in a 15-point fourth quarter that helped seal the deal.
Both teams fought through hard knocks. DeShields had to leave the game briefly in the third quarter after Dillingham crashed into her from behind going for a loose ball. Dillingham limped off the court late in the quarter after apparently hurting her left foot.
MSU fell behind by as many as seven, 17-10, after a jump shot by DeShields with 9:44 to play in the second quarter. But the Bulldogs used an 8-0 run sparked by 3-pointers by Vivians and Breanna Richardson to re-take the lead.
DeShields converted a three-point play at the 6:33 mark to give the Lady Volunteers the lead again. From there, defense was the story. MSU held Tennessee to 1 of 7 from the field and forced four turnovers. In that stretch, the Bulldogs forced a shot clock violation, had Dillingham draw an offensive foul on DeShields, had blocked shots by Vivians and Okorie, and two turnovers on inbounds plays.
Still, Tennessee shot better from the field (9 of 29, 31 percent) than MSU 8 of 28, 28.6). Five of the Bulldogs’ field goals were 3-points, including three from Vivians, who led all scorers with 11 points at halftime.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsports
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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