STARKVILLE — One more play.
With a four-point lead and 1 minute, 57 seconds remaining in double overtime, the Mississippi State women’s basketball team was again on the cusp of beating LSU for a pivotal Southeastern Conference home victory. All it needed was to get one more rebound, or one to make one more free throw, or to execute one more time against the press or in its half-court offense to get over the proverbial hump.
Instead, LSU trumped No. 15 MSU and made two plays in a 45-second span that sent it on its way to a 71-69 victory before a season-high crowd of 4,727 at Humphrey Coliseum.
Akilah Bethel’s steal and layup and Danielle Ballard’s jump shot in the final two minutes gave LSU (9-8, 3-2 SEC) the lead for good in a topsy-turvy game that saw momentum swings and big plays on both sides in one of the best atmospheres for a MSU women’s home game in recent memory.
That MSU (18-2, 3-2) wasn’t able to make one more play in suffering its second-straight loss was disheartening to MSU coach Vic Schaefer.
“I hate losing in front of our fans. They have been so good to us and so loyal,” Schaefer said. “I am sick. They made one more play than we did. It was one heck of a basketball game.”
Trailing 70-69 with 14.5 seconds to play, MSU had another chance to make a game-saving play. Schaefer inserted senior guard Kendra Grant into the game and called a play for her to move off a screen on the left wing. Grant turned the corner and had a great look at the basket from 17 feet, but her shot went off the back of the rim. Raigyne Moncrief hit 1 of 2 free throws with 3.9 seconds to go to account for the final margin. Morgan William’s heave from three-quarter court grazed the net and was short as time expired.
Dominique Dillingham (team-high 18 points) hit back-to-back 3-pointers from the left wing to tie the game and then give MSU the lead in the second overtime. Breanna Richardson added 1 of 2 free throws with 1:57 to go to give MSU its biggest lead. But LSU, which relied on a full-court pressure defense to slow MSU’s guards ability to bring the ball up the court, turned up the defensive intensity at the nick of time. Akilah Bethel forced a turnover against Jerica James, who went down in between two Tigers, and went in for a layup.
James said there was contact on the play and that she was tripped up, which caused her to lose her feet.
“We just had to keep playing,” James said. “Some go our way and some won’t go our way. At that moment, I just tried to look forward to the next play and not linger on what just happened.”
Schaefer said MSU couldn’t have gotten a better look on Grant’s shot. He called it a “good miss” and thought it was in when it left her hands. He agreed with James that there was contact on the turnover, but he declined to talk about the officiating.
“I certainly thought there was some contact. Absolutely,” Schaefer said. “I have to worry about my group, and if we had made one more free throw or defended the 3-point shot or got one more rebound (that might have made the difference). That is what I can control. I can’t control the rest of it. We have to continue to fight and get better.”
Jasmine Rhodes then intercepted a pass by Savannah Carter and missed a layup that would have given LSU the lead. But Bethel snatched the offensive rebound to set the stage for Ballard, who hit a jump shot with 57 seconds to play to give LSU its last lead.
“Coach Tasha (Butts) asked us how bad we wanted it,” Moncrief said. “We just came out there and made it happen. Jasmine is a great defender. Akilah is great at making deflections. They got me hyped and I got my hand in there and we just made it happen.”
Ballard (game-high 24 points and 10 rebounds) was playing in her third game of the 2014-15 campaign after being suspended for the first part of the season. The left-hander was part of a three-guard rotation with DaShawn Harden (13 points, five steals) and Moncrief (18 points) that gave MSU fits all evening. The Tigers used a high ball screen to give their guards open space and they capitalized by taking the ball aggressively to the basket on either side of the lane. That aggressiveness was part of the reason LSU shot a season-high 66.7 percent (12 of 18) from the field in the first half. It marked the third-straight game an opponent has shot 60.9 percent or better in a half against MSU.
“I am just extremely excited for the fight and the toughness that our team played with to come away with a win against a very, very good basketball team,” LSU coach Nikki Caldwell said.
Ballard also hit one of the game’s biggest shots when she was cut off from attacking the rim. With nine seconds remaining in the first overtime, Ketara Chapel hit 1 of 2 free throws to give MSU a 61-58 lead. Caldwell inserted Ballard into the game and the junior responded by draining a 3-pointer from the wing with :03 seconds left to extend the game another five minutes.
“We originally drew up a play for the shooters,” said Ballard, who considers herself a “playmaker.” “The time was ticking down and I really didn’t know what to do, so I shot it.”
Caldwell said guard Jenna Deemer also was on the floor for the final play in the first overtime, but she said Ballard seized the moment. She said the play was designed for Ballard to drive it for the hook and for her to look to pass so one of her teammates could attempt a 3-pointer.
The shot was eerily reminiscent of South Florida guard Courtney Williams’ 3-pointer at the buzzer last season that gave USF a 60-58 victory against MSU in the quarterfinals of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament. On that play, Schaefer said MSU didn’t turn Williams one more time like he wanted to deny her a chance at the shot. This time, the Bulldogs didn’t get out far enough to challenge Ballard.
“That spot on the floor hasn’t been good to us,” Schaefer said. “That is the second dagger we have taken from over there on that side.”
Schaefer used six substitutions in the second half, as Grant and Sherise Williams were the only other players to see action besides second-half starters Carter, James, Dillingham, Richardson, and Chinwe Okorie. Chapel and William were the only other players to see action in the five-minute overtime periods. Freshman Victoria Vivians didn’t score in eight minutes, while senior center Martha Alwal didn’t play.
Schaefer said after the game that Alwal wasn’t injured and that the team was dealing with some “in-house” issues when he was asked why Alwal didn’t play.
Despite a shorter than usual rotation and getting outscored 38-21 in points off the bench, MSU used a methodical effort in the second half that nearly helped it win the game in regulation. Carter, who had appeared in only nine games this season entering the evening, played a season-high 41 minutes. She was 1 of 11 from the field and had five points, but she had seven rebounds (six offensive), four assists, and five steals. She also had six of MSU’s 24 turnovers.
James also played a season-high minutes (38) and was one point shy from her career-high with 16 points. She was 3 of 7 from 3-point range, while Dillingham was 4 of 5 from behind the arc. James also had four assists and three steals.
But MSU failed to get timely defensive rebounds or committed offensive fouls in key spots that prevented it from building on its leads. In a game in which every possession proved critical, those lost opportunities cost the Bulldogs.
“I was feeling like once we had the stop we would get a big-time stop, or we would get on the line and we had an opportunity to shoot two free throws and we would either miss one and make the next,” James said. “There were times I wish we would have made those two or executed better on offense instead of having a turnover or a missed shot.”
MSU will play host to Alabama at 3 p.m. Sunday (Fox Sports Net South) against Alabama. The game will be MSU’s annual “We Back Pat” game in honor of longtime Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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