The Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs basketball team most likely secured a spot in the NCAA Tournament field by going 1-1 over the weekend at the SEC Tournament at the Alltel Arena in North Little Rock, Ark.
On Thursday, the Lady Bulldogs (22-9, 8-6 SEC) overcame a horrendous start to beat the South Carolina Gamecocks 49-39.
The Lady Bulldogs missed their first 17 shots and fell behind 18-0 with 12:14 left in the first half. They did not score until junior forward Chanel Mokango hit a three-pointer with 9:29 left.
MSU head coach Sharon Fanning said her team was lacking effort defensively.
“We weren’t guarding hard,” she said. “You see a team getting layups, and we’re not defending. This is on the ball, off the ball, period.”
From there, the Lady Bulldogs mounted a run of their own, and cut the Gamecock lead to 20-19 on senior forward Donnisha Tate’s free throw with 2:59 to go. The Gamecocks regained momentum and ended the half with a 26-22 lead.
Junior guard Alexis Rack said the team was just focusing on getting stops and points during the first 10 minutes.
“Clearly we didn’t get enough stops, but as soon as we got the stop, we started focusing on the offensive and got our momentum going,” Rack said.
The second half was a back-and-forth battle. The Lady Bulldogs took their first lead of the game with senior forward Robin Porter’s layup with 17:31 remaining in the game. The Gamecocks tied the game at 38 with 5:38 to go, but the Lady Bulldogs closed out the game on an 11-1 run to win and survive another day.
“You have a lot of players on the team that this is their first experience in an SEC Tournament, and hopefully we learned from it and understand the execution, the importance of teamwork,” Fanning said. “We need to get the ball in the paint, get to the free throw line, and we need to make them, but we did get there enough and made enough to come away with a big win, so I’m very, very proud of that effort.”
The Bulldogs were led in scoring Rack’s 12 points. Junior forward Tysheka Grimes scored 11 points, while Mokango had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds and also blocked five shots.
Friday, the LSU Lady Tigers avenged two previous losses this season to the Lady Bulldogs, defeating them 63-58.
The game started out neck-and-neck The Lady Bulldogs opened a 17-11 lead with 7:21 to go in the first half on freshman guard Diamber Johnson’s three free throws. However, the Lady Tigers went on a 16-4 run from there to lead 27-21, perhaps spurred on by a frightening neck injury to sophomore guard Latear Eason, who was taken to the hospital on a stretcher.
The Lady Tigers came out quickly in the second half, opening up a 42-26 lead with 13:27 to go on junior guard Allison Hightower’s jumper. The Lady Bulldogs closed the gap to 50-47 on Rack’s layup with 7:13 to go, but were not able to get any closer.
“I was pleased with our intensity, but we got in a hole. I feel like our intensity and our focus early on wasn’t where it needed to be, but I was proud of the way we competed,” Fanning said.
The Lady Bulldogs were led by Rack’s 14 points. Mokango had another double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, while Porter added 10 points.
Hightower led the Lady Tigers with 23 points. Freshman forward LoSondra Barrett added 11 points and blocked a pair of key shots, one of them coming in the final 10 seconds of the game.
While the Lady Dawgs must wait until Monday to find out their postseason destination, LSU head coach Van Chancellor said he’s confident the Lady Bulldogs will be in the NCAA tournament field.
“There is no doubt in my mind [the Lady Bulldogs] are an NCAA tournament team,” Chancellor said. “Throw all the resumes out, and say who do I not want to play in the NCAA playoffs, I’m telling you right now the Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs. I’ve had enough. I don’t want to play them for another year.”