OKLAHOMA CITY — Don’t sleep on Nina Davis.
While the depth of height on the Baylor women’s basketball team’s roster was a big topic of conversation Saturday morning, Mississippi State coach Vic Schaefer knows his squad won’t be able to forget about Davis, the 2015 Big 12 Conference Player of the Year and a three-time first-team all-league pick.
“We talked at length this morning about Nina Davis,” Schaefer said. “I’m very familiar with her, her accomplishments.
“We’re having to deal with a great team that has size. I think that’s the best way we can do it.”
Second-seeded MSU (32-4) will have to find a way to balance defending size in the post and on the perimeter and Davis at 6:30 tonight (ESPN) when it takes on top-seeded Baylor (33-3) in the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament’s Oklahoma City Regional at Chesapeake Energy Arena.
The winner of tonight’s game will advance to the Final Four next weekend in Dallas.
Uncharted territory
MSU, which is making its first appearance in the Elite Eight, will face an opponent that has six players 6-foot-2 or taller. Sophomore center Kalani Brown, who is 6-7, leads Baylor in scoring (15.2 points per game) and rebounding (8.2). Redshirt senior guard Alexis Jones, who is 5-9, is second on the team in scoring (13.1ppg.), while Davis, a 5-11 forward, is next at 12.8 ppg.
Beatrice Mompremier, a 6-4 sophomore center, Lauren Cox, a 6-4 freshman forward, Khadijah Cave, a 6-4 senior forward, and Dekeiya Cohen, a 6-2 junior forward, round out the Bears’ packed frontcourt.
“Baylor is an extremely talented, well-coached basketball team,” Schaefer said. “I have known coach (Kim) Mulkey a long time. I have had a little bit of experience dealing with her teams, and this team is no different. They are a big, strong, physical basketball team. They were even more impressive (watching them in person Friday night).”
Davis (21 points) tied for game-high scoring honors to help Baylor blitz Louisville 97-63 in the regional’s second semifinal game. The Bears had six players in double figures and used a 46-16 edge in points in the paint to advance to its fourth-straight Elite Eight, and eighth overall.
Baylor has won its three NCAA tournament games by an average of 54.3 points and outrebounded its opponents by an average of 22.7 in those games.
Schaefer should know what to expect from Mulkey’s team because he coached against her when he was an associate head coach at Texas A&M under head coach Gary Blair. Texas A&M beat Baylor in the Elite Eight in 2011 on its way to the national title. Blair was an assistant coach for Leon Barmore when Mulkey was a player at Louisiana Tech.
The Bulldogs should have a good idea of what to expect from the Bears because several of them referenced their matchups against South Carolina this season. They said the Bears are similar to the Gamecocks, who rely on A’ja Wilson, a 6-5 junior, and Alaina Coates, a 6-4 senior. An injury prevented Coates from playing in the NCAA tournament.
Preparing defensively
MSU senior Dominique Dillingham, who defended Washington’s Kelsey Plum, the nation’s leading scorer Friday night in a 75-64 victory, said Baylor presents a different defensive challenge after DePaul and Washington were more perimeter oriented.
“Baylor is more pound it in, pound the ball inside,” Dillingham said. “We have prepared for this all year. We played South Carolina twice, and I feel they are very similar to South Carolina, so I think we’re prepared and we will have a good game plan today.”
That game plan will focus on dealing with size in the backcourt with junior guard Kristy Wallace, who is 5-11, and at the small and power forwards, which is why MSU junior point guard Morgan William and senior forward Breanna Richardson know defense will be just as important as it was against Washington. The Bulldogs held the Huskies to 38.7-percent shooting from the field.
“I just feel like we got to play tough, physical, and aggressive, like coach Schaefer always tells us. We just have to play our game plan, pressure the ball, make sure they aren’t getting any easy looks.”
Said Richardson, “Their main thing is a high-low matchup. (We’re going to have to) help Teaira and the bigs out by denying the high post. We might give her a couple of shots, but we’re defending her off the bounce. If we dent their high/low, it should shut more of their stuff down.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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