NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — “Bulldogs Destiny.”
The words on the Mississippi State women’s basketball team’s postseason shooting shirts signaled the start of a new season.
Broken out for the first time since the team’s run last season in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament, the adidas maroon, long-sleeve shirts were appropriate considering the squad had earned the No. 3 seed in the Southeastern Conference tournament for the first time since 2009-10, the last season the program reached the NCAA tournament.
For 28 minutes Friday, No. 11 MSU looked comfortable in its new role chasing a destiny that included the “Big Dance.” The Bulldogs played some of their offense in the first half en route to a season-high 41 points. The execution continued into the second half, as MSU built a 15-point lead with a little more than 15 minutes remaining.
But Kentucky’s Makayla Epps wasn’t going to stand by and allow MSU waltz into the semifinals. The sophomore guard, who torched MSU for 42 points in a double-overtime victory in the regular season, had a similar virtuoso performance in the SEC tournament quarterfinals, scoring a game-high 31 points, including 15 of 24 points in a game-changing run, and willing No. 12 Kentucky to a 76-67 victory before a crowd of 4,189 at Verizon Arena.
The win sent Kentucky (23-8) in the semifinals and a third date against No. 2 seed Tennessee, while MSU (26-6) was left to contemplate an incomplete effort that some of the players felt wasn’t their destiny on the first part of their postseason journey.
“I think this one is more disappointing because we had a 15-point lead,” said MSU senior center Martha Alwal, referring to a 92-90 double-overtime loss to Kentucky on Feb. 12 in Lexington, Kentucky. “If we want to be one of the great teams, we need to be able to put them away when we have them away. We can’t be content with just leading by 15 points. We need to play defense.
“Then Epps again. She scored 73 points against us in two games. We had no answer for her. It’s not just a guard thing. It’s an everyone thing, but, still, we had no answer for her.”
A steal and a layup by Victoria Vivians (team-high 19 points) with 15 minutes, 18 seconds left gave MSU its biggest lead, 54-39. The Bulldogs still led 56-45 after a drive by Breanna Richardson (12 points, career-high tying four assists) with 12:38 to go.
That’s when Epps took over.
Built much like former Tennessee standout guard Kara Lawson, who was a notorious MSU killer in her career, Epps shook off the effects from an Achilles’ tendon injury and leg cramps. She scored on three consecutive drives, added two free throws, and then tied the game with a 3-pointer with 8:06 to play. MSU appeared to try to switch from a player-to-player defense to a 2-3 zone on that possession and the next. But Epps and Kyvin Goodin-Rogers foiled that plan. Goodin-Rogers’ 3-pointer gave Kentucky its first lead, 61-58. The Wildcats didn’t trail again.
“I don’t know what it is about Mississippi State,” Epps said. “I don’t know if I have some type of internal grudge against them. I don’t even really know those people. They are just so competitive. I have never met a team so competitive. Every time I play them I know it is going to be a war — not a game, not a battle, a war. I feel they just make me raise my level of game. They could go up 15 and they are like, ‘Come get me, Epps.’ It is like they are playing with me. ‘Come get us.’
“They make me rise to the occasion. That is making my team better. That is making me better, and I really do appreciate them for that.”
Midway through the run, Epps offered a glimpse into a never-to-be-denied mind-set. With Kentucky trailing 56-51, Epps beat Morgan William off the dribble and converted the drive despite being fouled by help defender Alwal. Epps offered a yell in the lane and kept talking as she walked to the free-throw line, where she was joined by her teammates. Epps missed the free throw, but her exploits had shifted the momentum.
“I am a really emotional player,” Epps said. “There are some times I hold it in, but then there are some times that are real big that is comes out without me even knowing it comes out. Tonight, I remember saying a lot, ‘We’re not going to lose this game. We’re not going to lose this game.’ We have a group of seniors who this is their last SEC go-around, and we underclassmen really want them to really go out with a bang.”
Epps’ aggressiveness on offense ignited the Wildcats’ defensive pressure. Kentucky ramped up its intensity and prevented MSU from getting the ball inside to Alwal (17 points, 10 rebounds), who attempted only two shots in the second half after going 5-for-5 from the field in the first half.
Following Richardson’s drive with more than 12 minutes remaining, MSU went 9:45 without a field goal (0-for-12, one turnover, one Kentucky steal) until senior guard Jerica James’ 3-pointer cut Kentucky’s lead to 69-64 with 2:53 to go. The Wildcats hit 9 of 12 free throws in the final 4:24 to seal the deal.
Vivians, who had 10 points early in the second half to give MSU its biggest lead, left the game with 10:19 to play and the Bulldogs leading 56-51. Vivians wasn’t sure how it happened, but she said she nearly lost the nail to her right thumb. She said the nail was still attached and that MSU trainer Mary McLendon wrapped it back onto her thumb. Vivians returned with 7:15 to go, but she was clearly affected by the injury. She missed her final four shots — all 3-pointers — and with 2:20 to go looked at her thumb during a stoppage in play as if she was contemplating another destiny, one that hadn’t included a bloody thumb injury.
“I don’t know if the ball hit it or if it got stuck in somebody’s jersey,” Vivians said. “It was bleeding everywhere. (Mary) cleaned it and put some kind of power stuff on it to stop the bleeding.”
Kentucky didn’t have any problem with the way the script played out. While Epps fueled the Wildcats and epitomized the toughness coach Matthew Mitchell wants from his team, Jennifer O’Neill had 18 points despite foul trouble. Goodin-Rogers and Alexis Jennings (five points, four rebounds) also had solid effort down the stretch to help Kentucky earn its ninth-straight win against MSU.
“At the under-16 media timeout, everybody was like, ‘We have to get up in the press and get up in here and start fighting,” Mitchell said. “It really changed the energy for our team. We didn’t turn them over a bunch (12 turnovers), but we really started affecting them.”
Mitchell also praised his team’s toughness in the first half in preventing MSU from pulling away in the first half, a half he said MSU “dominated” en route to a 41-37 lead. MSU shot 60 percent from the field in the first eight minutes, but it couldn’t maintain that pace.
A win against Kentucky, which is regarded as a top-16 team by ESPN.com’s Charlie Creme, would have bolstered MSU’s resume. Instead, MSU slipped from 25 to 28 in the NCAA ‘s Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), which is one figure the NCAA tournament selection committee uses to pick the at-large teams for the field of 64. That committee also will weigh MSU’s third-place finish in the SEC, its program-record 26 wins, and its seven non-conference wins against teams with RPIs of 203 or higher.
If the NCAA tournament selection committee feels MSU’s Strength of Schedule (SOS) offsets the other accomplishments, it could prevent the program from earning its first shot at playing host to the NCAA tournament. That likely wasn’t on the minds of MSU’s players after losing to Kentucky, but it could be the end result of what several agreed was a missed opportunity.
“We just have to play harder,” William said. “I feel like we played hard for 30 minutes and then we laid flat. I guess we got complacent with the lead and they took it from us.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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