STARKVILLE — One day after moving up to No. 2 in the third and final NCAA Reveal, the Mississippi State women’s basketball team achieved a new record Tuesday when it climbed to No. 2 in the USA Today Coaches Poll.
The ranking eclipses the No. 3 ranking in that poll MSU earned last week and the No. 3 ranking it has achieved in The Associated Press poll.
At 27-1 and 13-1 in the Southeastern Conference, MSU needs one more win to match its program record for wins in a season. It also enters the final week of the regular season with a one-game lead on South Carolina (22-4, 12-2) atop the league standings. MSU, which already has set a single-season mark for SEC wins in a season, needs one more victory clinch at least a share of its first SEC regular-season title in program history. Two wins would give the Bulldogs the championship outright and wrap up a No. 1 seed for the SEC tournament on Match 1-5 in Greenville, South Carolina. The top four seeds receive a double bye and won’t play until Friday, March 3. The No. 1 seed will play at 11 a.m. Friday, while the No. 2 seed will play at 5 p.m. Friday. (Those times were incorrect in Tuesday’s edition.)
MSU will try to take another step closer to those goals at 6 p.m. Thursday when it takes on No. 22 Kentucky (19-8, 10-4) at Memorial Coliseum in Lexington, Kentucky. The game will be streamed online on SEC Network+. The Wildcats moved back into The AP poll this week.
MSU will honor seniors Ketara Chapel, Dominique Dillingham, Chinwe Okorie, and Breanna Richardson on Sunday prior to its regular-season finale against Tennessee. The game will tip at 4 p.m. at Humphrey Coliseum. ESPN2 will broadcast the game live. The game also will feature a reunion of former MSU women’s basketball players.
MSU is coming off a 72-67 victory against then-No. 23 Texas A&M. The win was the program’s first in College Station, Texas. Junior Victoria Vivians led the way with a team-high 25 points. But the victory was about much more than the efforts of one player. The Bulldogs rallied from a seven-point deficit late in the third quarter thanks in part to 16 points and 13 rebounds by sophomore center Teaira McCowan. Chapel also hit a 3-pointer with 2 minutes, 18 seconds remaining to give MSU a 66-65 lead. McCowan answered a basket by Texas A&M with a bucket to give the Bulldogs the lead for good at 68-67 with 1:17 left. After a defensive stop, McCowan scored again before Vivians hit two free throws to seal the deal. The win completed MSU’s first season sweep of Texas A&M.
“This is why our team has been successful as we have been because every game we could have somebody completely new step up and help us win,” MSU coach Vic Schaefer said.
MSU’s success this season isn’t evident in individual honors. Junior point guard Morgan William is the only MSU player to receive a SEC Player of the Week honor. She shared that honor with South Carolina’s Nov. 24: Alaina Coates on Nov. 24. MSU also hasn’t had a player receive SEC Freshman of the Week honors, which isn’t surprising given it is one of the nation’s most experienced teams.
Still, MSU leads the SEC in scoring (76.3 points per game) and in scoring defense (53.5 ppg.; 53.9 in SEC games). A team has led in both categories only twice (Auburn, 1987; South Carolina, 2015) since 1982-83, when women’s basketball was recognized by the SEC. MSU is ranked first or second in 10 statistical categories.
“I think it really shows what we are about,” Schaefer said. “We’re about more than one or two people. This team has so many unique qualities to it.”
Schaefer, whose nickname is the “Secretary of Defense,” reiterated Tuesday he doesn’t think the Bulldogs are very good defensively. He feels MSU has a bigger upside on offense, where it is second in the SEC in field goal percentage (45.4 percent) and it has seven players averaging 7.1 ppg. or more. Vivians (16.8 ppg.) is the Bulldogs’ only double-digit scorer. The team has 10 players averaging double-digit minutes. All of that lends itself to a team that is poised to make more history with another win.
“Either one of these two (Chapel or Richardson) can step up and get you 20 on any given night, and we have had different people throughout the course of the season do that,” Schaefer said. “I think it shows exactly what we have here at Mississippi State. We have a great basketball team with some really good players that are highly skilled. More than that, they are highly skilled and (it shows) their unselfishness and their willingness to give of themselves and put the team first. That is a unique quality, but it is a championship quality. It allows you to do something special.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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