OKLAHOMA CITY — Morgan William’s 41-point performance Sunday night ranked eighth all-time in NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament history and best ever among female Southeastern Conference players in the Big Dance.
More than that, the junior point guard’s scoring explosion led second-seeded Mississippi State to a 94-85 victory over top-seeded Baylor in tournament’s Oklahoma City Regional final at Chesapeake Energy Arena, earning the Bulldogs (33-4) their first trip to the Final Four.
“I was feeling it. Coach let me make (the shots),” William said. “It opened shots for my teammates, too. When I was open, I knew I could knock down the shot. That really helped us from inside-out. It was just tough to guard us.”
Her stepfather, if he could have been there, would have been proud.
Three years ago Saturday, Donnie Rory passed away from a heart attack he suffered at work, leaving behind William, her mother and sister. After Sunday’s game, with all 5-foot-5 of William’s stature swallowed in Coach Vic Schaefer’s celebratory embrace, she tearfully admitted to an ESPN reporter the anniversary of Rory’s death motivated her mind during Sunday’s game.
“She broke down after we shook hands with Baylor, but I told her, ‘He is so happy for you. He is looking down on you and you are making him so proud,'” Vic Schaefer’s daughter Blair Schaefer, another junior point guard on the team who is William’s roommate, said later. “That is all he could ever ask from her. I know just hearing that it makes her heart feel so warm. At the same time, she wishes her dad was here, but she is just so strong mentally, physically, everything. She is such a giver, and I am so proud of her.”
William, of Birmingham, Alabama, who was named the regional’s Most Outstanding Player, shot 13-for-22 from the field, including 6-for-8 from 3-point range against Baylor. The field goals and 3-pointers made and attempted were all career highs. Her scoring also eclipsed the 39 by Tennessee’s Chamique Holdsclaw in 1999 for the most in a single game by a SEC player in NCAA Tournament history.
She also was 9-for-10 from the free-throw line, including 7 of 8 in the final 50.2 seconds of overtime.
MSU will play the winner of tonight’s Bridgeport Regional final between Connecticut and Oregon on Friday in the Final Four in Dallas. Last season, UConn defeated MSU 98-38 in the Sweet 16 of the Bridgeport Regional en route to its fourth-consecutive national title.
“Our point guard was as good as they get tonight,” Vic Schaefer said after the game. “She put us on her back. She led us. She was obviously feeling it.”
Poise and control
William took charge of Sunday’s game with the same poise she showed following her stepfather’s death.
“Her dad was so proud that she was coming to Mississippi State,” Vic Schaefer said. “I had just been with him at the Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Game. Like she said, he ate, drank, and slept training her. … I remember going to the funeral and all that, again, before she stepped foot on campus.
“It’s tough for her,” he added. “That’s the kind of kid, though, she is. She appreciates everything he did for her to get her to this point.”
Blair Schaefer said she could feel William’s confidence Sunday and the Bulldogs fed off it.
“She is one of the strongest people I have ever known,” she said. “I just feel like she feels like she has to be the strongest person in her family for her little sister and her mom to take some of the pressure and the weight off their shoulders. I just know she has made her family so proud doing what she is doing and getting back up and leading our team to the Final Four.”
William said the first person she called — or Face Timed — after the game was her sister, Kailey Rory, 15, to tell her she was going to Dallas. She said her sister couldn’t be at the regional because she was playing in an Amateur Athletic Union basketball tournament.
William acknowledged trying to be strong for her mother, Monica Rory, and sister is tough, but she said she is used to it. After all, it is her responsibility as point guard to be in charge of 12 other Bulldogs, so she knows what it takes to remain strong in the face of six Baylor players 6-2 or taller and people who doubted her ability.
On Sunday, William proved them all wrong with a heart that was the biggest of anybody on the court.
“I know she does it for her dad,” MSU senior guard Dominique Dillingham said. “I just feel so proud for her because I know how hard she worked for this moment. I know people doubt our team, but people doubt her as a point guard just because how small she is. They’re not valid in that. I love the way she plays. She was just awesome tonight.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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