After losing by 51 points to Vanderbilt University a year ago, the Mississippi State University Lady Bulldogs were out to seek revenge this time around when the Commodores came to Starkville Sunday afternoon. 
With the game tied at 62 a piece and 10 seconds left on the clock, the Lady Bulldogs looked to their All-SEC candidate Martha Alwal to bring them through, and she did just that. 
Point guard Katia May drove down the right side of the lane and dumped it off to Alwal, who went up for the shot.  The ball bounced around on the rim a few precious moments, and after it finally went in, Humphrey Coliseum erupted.  Alwal’s game-winning lay-in boosted MSU to its biggest win of the season and upset the No. 16 Commodores 64-62.
Alwal said her game-winning shot ranks as one of her top moments in her MSU career.
“I went up there and tried to be tough. That’s all that was going through my mind,” she said.  “When it went through, I was happy. I just wanted to take the ball in there and try to score.” 
The contest was a back-and-forth battle between the two teams all game long.  MSU’s defense had its highs and lows. It allowed Vanderbilt to shoot 62 percent from the field in the second half and 56 percent from the field overall. 
But, despite giving up a high field-goal shooting percentage, the team still managed to force its opposition into 26 turnovers and came up with 15 steals.
On offense, the Lady Bulldogs came out to a slow start, only shooting 30 percent from the field in the first half, but that quickly changed once they came out of the locker room.  
In the second half, the Lady Bulldogs shot 60 percent from the field and 90 percent from the free throw line.  
MSU trailed the majority of the game.  MSU grabbed a brief lead at the 7:17 mark but quickly lost it on the next possession.  
The Lady Bulldogs then regained the advantage again at the 6:45 mark, and from then on, they never looked back.  
MSU head coach Vic Schaefer said the team’s maturity was a big part of its success. 
“At some point they get enough of (losing), too. They’re going to go out there and getting things done. They’re going to go out and get the win,” Schaefer said.
Prior to Alwal’s game-winning shot, she scored 14 of the team’s final 21 points.  She finished the game with 23 points, tying her SEC career high.  
Vanderbilt’s head coach Melanie Balcomb said she was impressed with how far Alwal’s game has progressed throughout her career.
“She is one of the most improved players I’ve seen in this conference,” Balcomb said.  “She’s gotten much more aggresive, she handles physical play better and she’s just a tough player.”
The Lady Bulldogs have fought toe-to-toe with all of the elite teams in the conference, and perhaps the nation, but before Sunday, had always ended up on the losing side of things.  
Even though they have come up short in the past, they always find a way to persevere through the adversity. This team is battle-tested and it’s safe to say, it has now figured out how to win. 
Junior point guard Jerica James said she credits leadership for the team’s desire to win.
“In our court huddles, they mean something,” she said.  “We were actually telling people where they need to be, how they need to do it and where they should do it, and it wasn’t just from one of us. It was from all of us.”
The team continues to develop, and the younger players are starting to have a profound impact on the team.  The Lady Dogs now sit at 17-9 on the season and 4-8 in conference play.
MSU will hit the road to take on the University of Alabama Thursday before returning home Sunday to host bitter in-state rival Ole Miss, who they lost to earlier in the season.  
James said she hopes the team can ride this momentum wave as it heads down the final stretch of the season.
“We can’t focus too much on this game because we know we have several more games to go, “ she said.  “We know that winning these last couple of games will put us in position for post (season) play, and that’s our goal.”