STARKVILLE — There’s something about the second quarter that brings out the best in the Mississippi State women’s basketball team.
No. 4 MSU needed a bounce-back second 10 minutes after Texas A&M took a 20-15 lead. The Aggies set the tone by shooting 7 of 11 in the first quarter, while the Bulldogs were 6 of 17 from the field.
But the script flipped in the second quarter, as MSU was 9 of 17 from the field and Texas A&M was 3 of 11. As a result, MSU outscored Texas A&M 26-9 in the quarter. The margin proved to be the difference in MSU’s 71-61 victory before a crowd of 7,780 at Humphrey Coliseum.
“The second quarter was big,” MSU coach Vic Schaefer said. It was kind of like the Texas game back in November. We had something very similar.”
In a 79-68 victory against Texas on Nov. 20, 2016, the Bulldogs allowed only one field goal and outscored the Longhorns 26-9 in the second quarter. On Sunday, MSU (21-1, 7-1 Southeastern Conference) clamped down and held Texas A&M (15-6, 5-3) scoreless for 4 minutes, 16 seconds. In that time, MSU finished off a 21-5 run that helped it turn the tide.
“I think we just came out aggressive because we knew how good of a defensive team Mississippi State is,” Texas A&M point guard Curtyce Knox said. “In the second quarter, they stretched the lead a lot. We handled adversity in the second half, but I think if we would have been able to score in the second quarter that would have made a big difference in the game.”
Knox led the Aggies with 20 points. She was 4 of 7 from 3-point range. She added seven assists and three steals and had five turnovers in 40 minutes. Danni Williams, who entered the game averaging a team-high 17.9 points per game, had 15 and Khaalia Hillsman had 10. Anriel Howard had a team-high 10 rebounds.
“They just turned up their pressure,” Williams said. “Like (Curtyce said), we started out hitting shots and we were fired up and then we kind of settled down and they settled down and their defense got a lot more aggressive than what it started. They were taking away a lot of our scoring options.”
MSU junior point guard Morgan William (10 points, season-high tying nine assists) didn’t think there was that big of a difference in what MSU did on defense in the first and second quarters.
Schaefer, though, said there was a difference in how hard the Bulldogs worked to make the Aggies miss.
“They didn’t get as many good looks, good clean looks,” Schaefer said. “Then we were getting out in transition and we got some layups in that run, too, so I thought defensively in the second quarter we kind of locked in. That happens with us a lot. It is sort of a feel-yourself-around first quarter trying to figure out how they’re trying to attack you and you settle in and you get comfortable knowing what they’re trying to do to you.”
On the other end, Teaira McCowan scored all 10 of her points in the second quarter. Chinwe Okorie added two more as the Bulldogs made a concerted effort to get the ball deep in the lane. The Bulldogs had five of their 18 assists on baskets from their centers.
“We were supposed to double down and help more than we did,” Texas A&M coach Gary Blair said “We were slow in our matchup on getting down and she was scoring easy.”
Knox shines for Aggies
Knox, a redshirt senior, is making the most of her final season in College Station, Texas.
After redshirting in her first season, Knox decided to stay at Texas A&M even though she was playing behind All-SEC performer Jordan Jones. This season, she has taken advantage of her chance to shine and is leading the SEC in assists (9.3 per game) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.9) through games played Sunday. She is doing it by playing the second-most minutes in the SEC (36.4). Teammate Danni Williams leads the league at 37.0.
“It is something that comes with it,” Knox said of playing as many minutes as she does. “I am just used to the minutes now. I just try to play every possession as hard as I can.”
Knox played all 40 minutes against MSU, as did Williams. It seemed like the ball was always in Knox’s hands as she ran William or any Bulldog guarding her off screen after screen after screen. She said is trying to keep the basketball in her hands more because Blair would rather see her commit a turnover than one of her teammates. She said MSU’s defense on Khaalia Hillsman and Williams forced her to attempt 17 shots from the field, which tied for her second-highest total of the season.
“You build teams around point guards. That’s what Mississippi State is doing (with Morgan William),” Blair said.
Schaefer was impressed with Knox’s performance.
“She was really special,” Schaefer said. “That kid is probably the best point guard we have seen all season.”
Schaefer wants Bulldogs to look to post more
It’s nearly impossible to ignore 58.5- and 75-percent shooting.
If Schaefer had his druthers, he would like to see Okorie and McCowan get even more on the block or in the paint so they had opportunities to bolster their shooting percentages in the SEC.
Okorie and McCowan combined to go 7 of 11 from the field and score 19 points and grab 15 rebounds against Texas A&M to help MSU bounce back from its 64-61 loss to No. 5 South Carolina on Monday.
While McCowan and Okorie played key roles in the second quarter that helped break the game open, they combined to take only two shots from the field in the second half. Okorie converted her attempt, a score in the post off a pass from Breanna Richardson that helped the Bulldogs stop a 7-0 run by the Aggies that cut the deficit to 55-50 with a little more than six minutes remaining in the game.
“Chinwe’s bucket was big,” Schaefer said. “Ro(shunda Johnson) had (a drive and then a) step-back three that got us to 10, but it is nice to have the two aircraft carriers.”
Ideally, Schaefer said he would like Okorie and McCowan to use their 6-foot-5 and 6-7 frames to get eight or 10 touches in a half. He said the Bulldogs will continue to work on feeding the post and taking advantage of their size and depth in the post.
“It’s probably as much my fault (that Okorie and McCowan didn’t get more touches) as it is anybody’s,” Schaefer said. “I think we turned them down some. I think Dom turned them down a couple of times. We have got to feed them. Those kids are shooting a big number . … We have to give them some looks.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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