KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Blair Schaefer has said numerous times in her career that she has a small window to get her shot off.
Mississippi State women’s basketball coach Vic Schaefer, who is Blair’s father, knows it too. That didn’t stop coach Schaefer from getting on Blair in the first half when she didn’t take a shot when he felt she had an opening.
“She was wide open on it and just turned it down,” Schaefer said.
Coming off a scoreless outing against North Carolina State in the Sweet 16, Schaefer didn’t let the missed opportunity affect her confidence. Like any good shooter, she just waited for her next chance and didn’t hesitate.
Schaefer’s ability to rebound was pivotal in the second half, as she drained three 3-pointers to fuel No. 1 seed MSU’s 89-73 victory against No. 3 seed UCLA in the championship game of the NCAA Tournament’s Kansas City Regional at the Sprint Center.
Schaefer said she definitely didn’t have many good windows in the first half. She credited her teammates for hitting shots and forcing the defense to adjust.
“It made them loosen up on me, I guess, so that is when I got my shots off,” Schaefer said. “I think it is because my teammates and my coaches had a lot of confidence in me and they told me to have my feet ready. They told me that (Saturday) in practice and before the game. They were just like, ‘Make sure you have your feet ready at all times because you never know when they’re going to give you that window. They gave me the confidence and I took the shot.”
All three of Schaefer’s 3-pointer came at critical junctures. The first two came at the end of the third quarter and kicked the Bulldogs’ leads to 12 and 13 points. The final trey came with 5 minutes, 47 seconds remaining and kicked the Bulldogs’ lead to nine.
“Talk about at the right time, and big ones. Deep,” coach Schaefer said. “You’re proud of that kid for embracing the opportunity.”
Timely bucket
Coach Schaefer complimented junior center Teaira McCowan for her timely offensive rebound and putback of a missed layup by Morgan William with less than a minute remaining.
The score came after McCowan had zero points in the third quarter.
“That is partly my fault,” Schaefer said. “In the fourth quarter, I really made a conscious effort to get her the ball, and then she made a real effort to go clean up some of our mess, and that was a big cleanup. No doubt about it. We needed a bucket there.”
After the game, William joked she was “padding” McCowan’s statistics.
William said she was pumped after the basket, too, which prompted one of the officials to come over and tell her to calm down. It was hard to do because the basket was one of the final punches MSU threw to get back to the Final Four.
“I knew they weren’t going to come back,” William said. “I didn’t feel we were going to blow a lead like that. Every bucket we got was like icing on the cake.”
Unusual stat lines
MSU has made a point of winning many of the statistical categories on the way to a program-record 36 wins.
On Sunday, though, MSU was in the unusual position of being on the short end in four key areas. UCLA had edges in points off turnovers (13-8), second-chance points (18-12), fast-break points (9-0), and bench points (24-4). The teams were tied with 32 points in the paint.
The showing marked the third time this season an opponent has won four of those categories.
This and that
In addition to McCowan grabbing a career-high 21 rebounds, she set a regional record with that mark. … UCLA’s Monique Billings and Jordin Canada and North Carolina State’s Kiara Leslie rounded out the all-regional team.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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