Bulldogs reach SEC Tournament championship game once again
GREENVILLE, S.C. – There was limited experience in the Southeastern Conference Tournament for a young Mississippi State team but the Bulldog newcomers sure looked like a seasoned bunch on Saturday.
Coach Vic Schaefer has been no stranger to working different lineups dependent on his matchup, but he shook it up against No. 18 Kentucky in the semifinals. Backup center Yemiyah Morris had a double-double in 25 minutes and Aliyah Matharu scored 15 points off the bench to back up a monster performance from freshman Rickea Jackson.
The end result was a 77-59 triumph over the Wildcats avenging an 11-point loss from earlier in the year and sending the No. 9 Bulldogs back to the SEC Tournament finals for the fifth time in a row.
While the new faces did the biggest damage on the stat sheet, the fifth year senior Jordan Danberry was tasked with switching on SEC Player of the Year Rhyne Howard. Howard scored 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting in the first quarter but ended up shooting 5-of-17 the rest of the way with a 2-for-12 performance from 3-point range. 26 points was still a high number, but the Bulldogs succeeded in limiting her production the best they could while also limiting everyone else around her.
“Rhyne is SEC Player of the Year for a reason so the assignment was definitely tough,” Danberry said. “I wanted to deny the ball to her a lot and make her be a passer.”
Kentucky (22-8) had 13 points from Chasity Patterson, but no one else scored more than eight points in the loss.
It appeared that the Wildcats were up for a rout in the first quarter as they jumped out to a 22-12 lead. State couldn't buy a basket and Kentucky hit four shots from deep out of seven tries.
It was a repeat of the first meeting between the two teams in the first quarter as Kentucky jumped out to a big lead, but the Bulldogs found the toughness factor this time around.
“I thought the first quarter we probably got out-toughed a little bit,” Schaefer said. “Once Yemiyah and Jordan settled in and provided what they did defensively, we were better. Rhyne is probably going to get hers. You just have to make sure nobody else is going to beat you.”
The defensive intensity made a difference but also a change in personnel. Schaefer put Morris in the post for starter Jessika Carter and mixed in Matharu at times in the first half. While Jackson stayed hot from the field and was pacing the offense, everything else fell into place.
State took that 10-point deficit in the first quarter and trimmed it to three at the half at 35-32. In the third quarter, it outscored Kentucky 20-12 in the third and a Matharu 3-pointer at the buzzer of the quarter made it 52-47 and the Bulldogs were off to the races.
“I just thought Jessika was struggling for whatever reason and she hasn't struggled much this year,” Schaefer said. “I thought we need to try something else and be engaged in what we were doing. Yemiyah is getting better. It's taken some time for her, but she was a difference player for us (Saturday).”
The fourth quarter was the strongest for MSU as it put up 25 points and allowed just 12. The Bulldogs finished the game shooting 51 percent from the field while limiting the Wildcats to 34 percent and they also made Kentucky shoot 2-of17 from long range after the first quarter.
MSU (26-5) dominated the boards at 40-29 led by Jackson and Morris. Jackson finished with her second best game as a Bulldog pouring in 29 points on 11-of-16 shooting with 10 rebounds. She notched her second double-double in a row and fourth of the season as she also got to 20 points or more for the eighth time.
Morris had the game of her life. The junior college transfer averages less than 8 minutes a game, but had 26 on Saturday night with 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting, 10 rebounds and five blocked shots. It was the first-career double-double for Morris.
"I've been working really hard all year,” Morris said. “The coaches always say to prepare for your time so I let it all fall into place. It means a lot to me that I could help my team get the win.”
As for Matharu, she was once again an x-factor on the offensive end. She finished the game with 15 points on 6-of-13 and had four rebounds. Danberry scored 10 points and had seven assists, but her defense was the story.
The victory now sets up the game that most everyone has wanted to see. A top 10 showdown will converge on Bon Secours Wellness Arena today at 1 p.m. Outside of South Carolina's only loss of the year to Indiana, the Bulldogs gave the Gamecocks their toughest test of the year when they lost 81-79 in Columbia, S.C., back in January.
It's an SEC record-tying fifth-straight trip to the tournament championship for the Bulldogs, but they've lost three times to South Carolina in three games. This time, Schaefer is hoping to turn the tide and make a trip that so many Bulldog fans made to the tournament worth it.
“I know my fans,” Schaefer said. “I've got three of the biggest farmers in the Delta here. I know their work ethic and the pride that they take in the job that they have. They're spending their money, time and interest in our program. I feel a tremendous responsibility to people like that. I don't want them to go home disappointed.”
Mississippi State's softball team will play for its fourth regular-season tournament title today after claiming two victories in the Bulldog Slamboree at Nusz Park on Saturday.
The No. 22 Bulldogs won in walk-off style against Southeast Missouri when Anna Kate Segars belted a two-run home run to break a scoreless tie in the seventh. Meanwhile, Emily Williams flirted with a no-hitter, striking out nine batters along the way.
“(Emily Williams) was lights out for us in the first game,” MSU head coach Samantha Ricketts said. “She was efficient and getting ahead of hitters all game. I thought the team did a great job of staying up and telling her that we would score some runs for her. It is nice to see different bats in our lineup coming through and AK (Segars) put together a couple great at bats against a quality pitcher.”
Williams saw her no-hit bid ended when Addison Barnouski beat out a sacrifice bunt attempt with one out in the seventh. Had she completed the effort, it would have marked just the second time State had thrown nohitters in consecutive games, dating back to the first two in school history when Alicia Judd and Jenny Hehnke threw back-to-back nohitters against Alabama State on March 1-2, 1997.
The Bulldogs later got out of the inning when Mia Davidson registered her fifth caught stealing of the year. Williams quickly struck out a final batter to bring the Bulldogs
to the plate where it took just two batters to end the ballgame.
Madisyn Kennedy, who had made an athletic play in the top half to catch Davidson's throw and apply the tag at third while still running to cover the bag, led off the inning and reached on an error. Segars did the rest, sending the 2-2 pitch over the center field wall.
In their second game of the day, the Bulldogs wasted no time. The first four batters all reached base and scored before the first out was recorded. Segars again provided most of the damage with a bases-loaded triple before coming home on the first out of the inning. State added one more in the frame.
“I liked how we picked up in game two right where we left off offensively,” Ricketts added. “There were a lot of quality at-bats from the entire lineup, and we had base runners every inning which was one of our goals.”
In the second inning, the Bulldogs pushed across three more before erupting in the third. MSU brought 14 batters to the plate in that frame, scoring nine runs on seven hits. Ricketts was able to use three pinch hitters, all of whom reached base.
Mississippi Valley answered back with a threerun homer in the top of the fourth inning, but the Bulldogs scored three runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning to result in the final score.
The Bulldogs (23-3) will meet Southeast Missouri State (12-4) again today in the championship game at 1:30 p.m.