Pointing toward a title
Bulldogs claim share of SEC regular season championship
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Teaira McCowan had 19 points and 11 rebounds and No. 2 Mississippi State earned a share of its first Southeastern Conference title with a 95-50 victory over Vanderbilt on Thursday night.
The Bulldogs (27-0, 13-0) can win the regular-season championship outright with a victory over No. 17 Texas A&M on Sunday.
“This team has been in this position (clinching the SEC) and didn’t respond,” MSU head coach Vic Schaefer said. “(Thursday night) they did. We played well in every phase of the game. I liked our toughness. The way we shared the basketball. The way we defended.”
McCowan, a 6-foot-7 junior center, had her 19th double-double of the season. Senior guard Victoria Vivians also scored 19 points.
Roshunda Johnson added 13 points, and Blair Schaefer had 12 for the Bulldogs, who outrebounded the Commodores 34-20. MSU boasted a 17-5 advantage on the offensive glass as it dominated play most of the way.
MSU hit 10 of 25 from beyond the 3-point arc, including four by Schaefer — daughter of coach Vic Schaefer.
The Bulldogs enjoyed their sixth-highest point total of the season. Jordan Danberry scored 10 points off the bench.
Vanderbilt (6-21, 2-11) suffered its fourth straight defeat and lost for the seventh time in eight games.
Christa Reed led the Commodores with 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting. Kayla Overbeck added 12 points, shooting 6 of 7.
The Bulldogs outscored the Commodores 16-2 in secondchance points.
MSU took charge early by grabbing a 50-26 halftime lead after making 8 of its first 16 shots from 3-point range and outrebounding Vanderbilt 19-9 during the first two quarters.
“We came out ready to play,” Schaefer said. “I was concerned going in because Vanderbilt has been shooting the ball well as of late. They shot the ball well in this game. We forced 26 turnovers. That was a big stat. I really thought we went out there and took it (Thursday night).”
The Bulldogs made national headlines when they ended UConn’s 111-game winning streak at the Final Four semifinals in 2017, avenging a 60-point loss in the tournament the previous season.
MSU took second after falling to SEC champion South Carolina in the final.
Vanderbilt’s players and cheerleaders wore pink uniforms in the annual Play4Kay game, a women’s cancer fundraiser founded in the vision of Kay Yow in 2007.
Yow coached North Carolina State from 1975-2009 before dying after a long battle with breast cancer in 2009.
Vanderbilt held a moment of silence before the game to honor the victims of Wednesday’s mass shooting in South Florida and to show support for their families.