Mississippi State to host women’s NCAA watch party
For Starkville Daily News
Mississippi State women’s basketball finds out its “Road to Columbus” today.
The best fans in America can join the Bulldogs in finding out their path to the Final Four during an NCAA Tournament Selection Show presented by Coca-Cola Monday evening in the Humphrey Coliseum.
Admission is free, and doors open at 4:45 p.m. The clear bag policy and regular game day security procedures will be in place.
The No. 4 Bulldogs will sign autographs on the concourse from 4:45-5:45 p.m. The NCAA prohibits the sale of items signed by student-athletes. Student-athletes will only sign the Southeastern Conference champions posters available at no cost on the concourse.
Following the autograph signing, the SEC-champion Bulldogs will be introduced and the show will be shown on the video board starting at 6 p.m.
MSU students can go to the Hail State Rewards store and have the opportunity to get a special Mississippi State-branded Coca-Cola and sit in the Coca-Cola Toast Zone during the show.
Under SEC Coach of the Year Vic Schaefer, Mississippi State has put together a 32-1 overall record and winning the program’s first SEC Championship with a 16-0 mark.
The Bulldogs won 32-straight games, the second-longest win streak in SEC history, and became the first league school to finish the regular season undefeated in 20 years.
A limited number of all-session reserved tickets remain for the first and second rounds. They can be purchased online at www.HailState.com/Tickets or by calling the MSU Ticket Office at 1-888-GO-DAWGS.
All-session reserved tickets cost $35 for adults and $15 for youth age 17 and under and MSU students with a valid student ID.
If any tickets remain, individual session reserved tickets will go on sale March 16 at 8:30 a.m. at the cost of $20 for adults and $10 for youth and MSU students.
A day before the Bulldogs find out their NCAA Tournament path in Humphrey Coliseum, Teaira McCowan and Victoria Vivians earned All-America honors from ESPNW.
McCowan was chosen to the first team, while Vivians was selected to the third team. State and UConn were the only teams with multiple players on the list.
McCowan has been a dominant force in the paint for the Bulldogs, averaging a career-best 17.7 points and 13.2 rebounds per game this season. She was picked first team All-Southeastern Conference and SEC CoDefensive Player of the Year after averaging 17.7 points and 14.4 rebounds per contest in league play.
McCowan finished the regular season third nationally on the glass and set an MSU singleseason record with 435 boards, eighth-most in SEC history. She also finished fourth in the SEC with two blocks per game.
The Brenham, Texas, native recorded a program-best 23 double-doubles, fourth-most
in the nation, and topped the Division I ranks on the offensive glass with 5.9 rebounds per game. McCowan tallied 10-plus rebounds in 29 games.
Offensively, McCowan
has shot the basketball at a 60.2-percent clip that is 16th in the nation. She has collected double figures 26 times, including 11 20-point games and five 30-point contests.
Vivians earned the honor after being named a firstteam All-American by USA
Today. The Carthage native scored a career-best and MSU eighth-most 646 points this season, a 19.6 scoring average that ranks third in the SEC. Vivians scored double figures in 32 of the Bulldogs’ 33 games this season, including tallying 20 points 15 times and
30 points twice.
She also had her mostefficient season on offense, knocking down an SEC sixth-best 48.5-percent from the field. Vivians ranked eighth in the league from the 3-point arc (39.5-percent) and seventh at the free-throw line (81.4-percent).
After scoring 17 points in the SEC Tournament final against South Carolina, Vivians has tallied 22.3 points per game for the year against ranked foes.
The first team All-SEC selection also grabbed six rebounds per game, 1.8 per game higher than a year ago.
The duo helped Mississippi State win its first SEC regular-season championship. The 32-1 Bulldogs finished the regular season undefeated, the first SEC team to do so in 20 years. State’s run of 32-straight wins ranked as the second-longest win streak in conference history.