After its stunner, Mississippi State turns to title game

“But we came up against a much better team tonight”, Auriemma said. To win it all, State will have to vanquish a third #1 seed in as many games in the form of SC.

Standing between No. 7 MSU (34-4) and the national title today will be Southeastern Conference nemesis SC. Allisha Gray had 18 points and eight rebounds for the Gamecocks. It was a performance that she learned from instead of sulking and the Bulldogs are the better for it. With just under four seconds remaining, she passed the ball to William.

To use a cliché like all good things come to an end would not do that game justice.

“William was upset, but answered questions with class, grace” tweeted ESPN.com’s Mechelle Voepel.

Dillingham, who is playing in her final game as a Bulldog, said, “It means everything”.

MSU/South Carolina is developing into a SEC women’s hoops rivalry. They’re playing at an all-time high. The first OT win in the tournament spoiled Baylor’s chance to play in the Final Four just 100 miles from campus. She finally has her national championship. The top three stars from last season – Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson, and Morgan Tuck – were gone, chosen as the first three players in the WNBA draft.

Mississippi State lost to CT by 60 points in last year’s NCAA Sweet 16, the largest margin ever in a NCAA women’s regional game.

To win their first national title, they had to go through the Bulldogs, who shocked UConn with a buzzer-beating 66-64 victory on Friday night.

Will it be a hard act to follow?

And Mississippi State never blinked, not even when a highly questionable flagrant foul call late in OT threatened to continue UConn’s streak in controversial fashion. The Bulldogs lost by three on the road then had a lead before a four-point fourth quarter in the SEC Tournament.

“We’d just be the underdogs who got lucky”.

The win propels them into the championship game – a first time in program history – in an SEC match-up against a team they are all too familiar with; the South Carolina Gamecocks Sunday evening. We beat the greatest team, with the greatest streak in the history of sports. She scored 41 in the win over Baylor and then hit the game-winner against CT. “Go back to my Temple days, they believed in our vision”.

“You want that kind of confidence in your huddle”.

“Heart over height” is a nice motto. “Yes and No. Yes, because of how well UConn has been playing, but Mississippi State has been finding ways to win this whole tournament”, Davis said.

Neither team scored much in OT with Teaira McCowan’s layup with 1:12 left in the extra session breaking a 62-62 tie.

G Victoria Vivians 6-1 Jr. “But it’s not defining our season”, Bulldogs coach Vic Schaefer said. “When we really needed to be a little more mature with what we’re doing, we didn’t have it”.

“Look, nobody’s won more than we’ve won”, he said.

UConn ended up going into the half trailing by eight, Bulldogs leading 36-28. “I think as many wins that I’ve been a part of, it’s the losses that really sting”. She cut down the final piece of the net, waving it to the huge throng of Gamecocks fans while Wilson and Kaela Davis danced with the SC band playing. They’re hoping the third time is the charm that they they can wear forever in gold.

“Morgan William is going to make shots, she’s going to make plays”, Gamecocks Coach Dawn Staley said.

“We have Unfinished business” Dominique Dillingham said of the upcoming game against SC. “It’s just showing that our talent is here, and it should be a big game”. Wilson is a 6-foot-5-inch first team All American. Coates has been out with an ankle injury for the entire tournament and Wilson’s had to carry the load inside.

While facing a familiar foe is helpful for the short turnaround, SC coach Dawn Staley knows Mississippi State is a different team from the one the Gamecocks played a month ago. This was the first time this season that UConn was losing in the fourth quarter. But anti-UConn gloaters beware.

The film that the team watched was MSU’s SEC Championship loss in Greenville, S.C. almost a month ago.

UConn’s vulnerabilities were exposed as it lost for the first time in almost 2½ years, since an 88-86 defeat in overtime at Stanford on November 17, 2014. A three-point play by Chinwe Okorie got it started with a William basket and two free throws by Richardson closing out the quarter. “It’s incredible belief and discipline and can’t thank them enough for choosing SC”.