STARKVILLE — The sound of cowbells drowned out the aftermath of the final buzzer. In most moments leading up to it, they could drown out one’s thoughts.

The crowd at the Mississippi State watch party in Humphrey Coliseum in the final minutes of Sunday’s NCAA Women’s Basketball National Championship did not represent what it was at its peak, as an estimated 3,800 to 3,900 people packed into the arena to watch. For comparison, MSU had an average attendance of 6,641 in its 13 homes games this season.

MSU lost to South Carolina 67-55.

Fans were lining up at the doors of the coliseum well before the doors opened a full hour before tipoff. Twenty minutes before the doors opened, a line stretched from the back entrance of the coliseum on Lakeview Road around the corner to Bailey Howell Drive, wrapping around the corner of the Mize Pavilion.

Local support

Melissa Tehan — better known in Starkville as The Biscuit Lady for her biscuit shop on South Washington Street — knows what that fervor was at its peak better than most: She changed the foundation of her business for a day reacting to it.

In watching the national semifinal against Connecticut — in which MSU broke UConn’s record 111-game winning streak on Morgan William’s buzzer-beater, winning 66-64 — Tehan noticed the constant allusions to William’s nickname, Itty Bitty.

Once William hit the game-winner, the Twitter questions came en masse. Tehan saw a swarm of inquiries directed at her and other local businesses such as Churn and Spoon wondering what special item they would concoct to celebrate the upset.

For Tehan, the answer was obvious.

Every biscuit The Biscuit Shop made from scratch on Saturday was a mini, named Itty Bitty for the day. They were sold for $1 each and were quite the hit: ESPN called asking for some, so she delivered a box to Humphrey Coliseum as she attended the watch party with her family.

Tehan holds no disappointment in Sunday’s outcome.

“Friday was huge,” she said. “Mission accomplished.”