STARKVILLE — The gang was nearly all back in town Sunday.
Despite Victoria Vivians not being able to attend, the Mississippi State women’s basketball team celebrated its second-straight national title game appearance in a banner-raising ceremony prior to its game against Coppin State at Humphrey Coliseum.
Morgan William, Roshunda Johnson, and Blair Schaefer took the court with their former teammates in a celebration that lasted nearly 20 minutes prior to a 110-38 victory before a crowd of 7,320.
After the game, MSU coach Vic Schaefer said his focus is on coaching and teaching better so he can get his team over the finish line in the final three seconds to win a national title. Schaefer was referring to last season’s 61-58 loss to Notre Dame when Arike Ogunbowale hit a 3-pointer as time expired.
“We’re working on that every day,” Schaefer said.”I think they’re interested right now. That’s the best way to put it. I think they’re interested in that, and I’d like to see them be determined in that. So, we’ll keep working at it, and we’re a long way from a finished product. We should be. It’s just November. You got four new starters and quite a few at depth that’s playing a lot of minutes right now. It’s good to see Jessika (Carter) and Andi get out there and have games that they’ve had. Those are young kids. Jessika, she’s a freshman. Andi, she’s basically a freshman. These kids are playing big minutes for us, making some shots, and having success. I think the biggest thing is, they want to please. They want to be good. That’s a really important piece of the puzzle, wanting to be good, that whole mind-set of ‘Hey, I got to get better. I got to develop some toughness. I got to do what they do around here.’ ”
Connecticut transfer Andra Espinoza-Hunter wasn’t part of the ceremony, but she said the Bulldogs are focused on changing the word “finalist” on the banner to “champion.”
“It definitely was motivating, especially seeing that finalist,” Espinoza-Hunter said. “Hopefully this year, knock on wood, we can change that to champions, so it definitely was motivating.”
Espinoza-Hunter’s comment reflected how quickly she has bought into Schaefer’s mind-set. The addition of graduate transfer Anriel Howard from Texas A&M has helped the Bulldogs reload in an effort to make MSU’s dream of a third-straight trip to the national title game a reality.
Considering Espinoza-Hunter said she thought she would see “cows, people riding horses, and all that stuff, just your typical country stuff you see on TV.” If you have ever been to Storrs, Connecticut, you might think the same thing as you drive onto campus. There were doubts about UConn’s ability to be able to become a national power, but now the Huskies are one of the nation’s elite programs. The same could be said for MSU.
“The people here really lived up to it,” Espinoza-Hunter said when asked about her expectations of coming to Starkville.
Noteworthy
Carter and Teaira McCowan each had five blocked shots. McCowan fell shy of a double-double with six rebounds, but she had her 10th-straight game in double figures. She has scored 20 or more points seven times in that stretch. … The Bulldogs scored 68 points in the paint. … MSU shot 71.1 percent from the field in the first half to lead 64-16 at halftime. … MSU won its 40th-straight non-conference game in the regular season. … MSU has won 23 in a row against non-conference opponents at home going back to the 2013-14 season. … McCowan and fellow senior Jazzmun Holmes recorded their 103rd win to move to 103-15. They need 23 wins to match last year’s senior class for the program wins record (126). … MSU scored 100 or more points in back-to-back games for the first time since Nov. 21, 2015, and Nov. 24, 2015.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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