Mike Siroky’s SEC Report: Week Two Scrambles The Conference

By Mike Siroky

 

Week two of the Southeastern Conference of women’s basketball confrontations scrambled national and league standings.

Solid is the tradition if you win your homes games you win the conference regular season championship. 

There are three left.

Mississippi State is the dominating team because of consistency. Coach Vic Schaefer takes nothing for granted and revels in each win.

Tennessee, a once-dominating team, showed it simply isn’t with a second home loss in just three games, then a third league loss in succession for the first time ever.

 In other leagues, they’d still be important. Not now in the SEC.

We sometimes lose sight of the concept that what fans of the SEC see as mere  is still Top 25, which  most programs nationally would  welcome.

The song remains the same:  There are a few elite teams and everybody else. The top eight are likely the Elite 8 in the eliminations.

Chennedy Carter of Texas A&M, Rennie Davis of Tennessee, Rhyne Howard of Kentucky and Teaira McCowan of Mississippi State are among the 25 players surviving the midseason cut for the national Player of the Year Wooden Award. 

UConn and Notre Dame each have three nominated.

The conference also announced this year’s Legends of the SEC class, which covers all sports and is picked by each home athletic department. 

The legends will be honored on campus at athletic events and one will be featured each week by the league. 

Among the women’s basketball legends: Courtney Walker 2012-2016 (Texas A&M); and Coco and Kelly Miller (1997-2001) Georgia.

Here’s SEC Week Two

No. 7 Mississippi State (14-1)

Three of the previous four games between Mississippi State and Georgia have been decided by 10 points or less, including last season when State ran undefeated through the league.

This time SEC Co-Players of the Week were featured: Sate senior Jordan Danberry and Georgia’s Gabby Connally.

. Danberry leads the league in scoring in conference play, averaging 21.5 ppg through two contests, and Connally leads the Georgia offense with 13.3 ppg.

Really, though, everyone is just waiting for the end of the season and All-American McCowan winning the overall.

When you are the Big Dog in this league, even the second-tier teams will give you a game.

When those other ’Dawgs, Georgia, fell out of the Top 25 weeks ago, we said they’d not be back. Even with 11 wins, two in conference coming in.

So, on the last play of the third quarter, when Caliya Robinson took a feed from Jenna Statin and hit her jump shot, it gave Georgia a 59-57 lead, the first time State had been behind in the fourth quarter of a league game in two seasons.

Never mind the 29-game home winning streak. This was a gut check.

“It’s about toughness, State coach Vic Schaefer said. “That’s part of toughness, coming back.

“I absolutely love this Georgia team. They got a helluva team. They came in here and took it to us. They play with a lot of confidence. I can respect and appreciate a team like that.”

He also has to love his defense, Schaefer’s specialty. They allowed no field goals in the final 6:12. They were outscored underneath, a season first, led by Robison’s 26. 

But they were in charge low when the game was on the line.

An Anriel Howard layup made it 69-68 with 4:12 left and they built from there. 

She finished with 18, 13 in the first half. 

McCowan was as mammoth as advertised, 18 points, 21 rebounds (13 offensive) and two blocks.

 Jazzmun Holmes scored five of her seven, and the team’s final seven. 

Chloe Bibby scored seven straight times in one stretch, played all 40 minutes and scored a career-best 24, carrying them with 17 in the first half until the others caught up.

“If she doesn’t have 17 at half, we’re down by nine.” Schaefer said.

They had more steals, 12-4, and did win rebounds, by three, causing 22 turnovers.

“I’m proud of our seniors down the stretch,” Schaefer said, “We had some seniors not have their best nights, but down the stretch they found a way.

“Jazz and T, their last five minutes were as good as it gets. Praise the Lord and Go ’Dawgs!”

It was bobblehead night for Schaefer. The first 1,000 fans of the 6,493 got one.

The Bulldogs have been in the Top 10 for 50 straight weeks.  

They play three games this week, at Auburn then the annual showdown with South Carolina before Ole Miss visits for the intrastate battle. 

They can only improve their poll positioning if someone ahead of them loses, but the elite teams merely rotate those spots now.

No. 15 South Carolina (12-4)

And guess who is suddenly the second-best ranked team in conference.

Steady building back from the precipice of being the last ranked team in America, Coach Dawn Staley has rallied her team before Florida visited. 

The Gamecocks successfully defended the home court in league play.

Mikiah Herbert Harrigan has averaged a double-double and blocked 5.5 shots per game last week. In league games, she is second in rebounding (12.5) and 14th in scoring (14.5).

Gator coach Cam Newbauer has not yet captured the magic he had at mid-major Belmont on this bigger stage.

No magic in Columbia, for sure. 

SC announced the anticipated result with a 24-9 opening quarter and a basket-trading second for a 13-point halftime lead. 

Four of five starters were at or near double figures, even if Staley used seven subs, limiting opportunities, but receiving no points.

Early in the third, the lead was 20. The four starters were all in double figures, led by steady if unspectacular senior Bianca Cuevas Moore’s 16 in 17 minutes in her first start of the season. She can do that against bottom feeders.

“She’s healthy. She can do that,” said Staley. “I told her earlier in the process of her rehabbing (a rebuilt knee) that come SEC time is a good target to get as healthy as possible.

“She’s there, health-wise. Condition-wise, I don’t think she’s there.”

Guard Te’a Cooper has fallen way off from a hot start to the season. She had scored zero.

The clock was running and the lead was 30 in the fourth, 71-40 at the finish.

Four players hit double figures.

It was on to the Bayou and two 11-win teams. 

SC ended the Ben-Gals’ shot at undefeated home season, leaving it and the other powerhouse of late, Mississippi State, as the last two ranked conference home unbeatens.

The Gamecocks upped their average rebounding margin to 6.7, coming into conference at 2.8. Center Mikiah Herbert Harrigan has raised her conference scoring average to 13, a five-point increase.

Staley headed to overachieving LSU and a blowout road win, 76-53.  

The defense was so dominating from the jump that is raised the level of offense. The team that allows 54 points per game was past that in the third.

Staley was well beyond points and was scrambling playing time after the 29-11 first quarter established who would win.

The crowd of 3,000 did not like that.

She had four players in double figures in not many minutes played and won rebounds by a dozen.

“When we play fast, we’re pretty good,” Staley said. “When we share the ball, the ball is touching everybody, the result is good.

“When you can hit some outside shots, it tends to make the defense come out and play you. Then that allows us to go inside.”

The renovation of the early season damage is complete. 

SC rose six spots in the national poll, the largest leap.

 This is not to say they are little more than a Sweet 16 team at this point. 

If they can put together a run in the league tournament they are still just that. The next six weeks has to be the development of Mikiah Herbert Harrigan.

This week is the showdown at Mississippi State and the defense of the home court with personal aggravator Missouri.

No. 16 Kentucky (15-3)

There are feature games, but then there are games everyone will be talking about the next day.

Ole Miss’ stunning of Kentucky at home, 55-49, is the more fun of the two.

UK coach Matthew Mitchell came home to figure out life without Taylor Murray. 

An unranked 7-11 team seemed a good opponent to find it.

Ole Miss is just starting the regime of coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin who took over the program after a successful stint at Jacksonville University. 

Her players call her Coach Yo.

Senior guard Crystal Allen leads scoring with 17.9 points per game, hitting a team-best 48 3s with 41 assists and 17 steals. 

Senior guard Shandricka Sessom is averaging 9.8 points with a team-best 5.9 rebounds per game.

 Freshman Mimi Reid has a team-best 75 assists. Junior Jhileiya Dunlap leads the team with 31 blocks and 21 steals.

But they only average 60 points a game while scoring 65. 

That’s about the UK points allowed average, but the Kats usually score 79. But this was also without Maci Morris, the leading scorer.

Of all the weird giveaways in the league, this was UK Rubber Ducky Day, with general admission $10.

 The home team was the sitting ducks. Allen burst out with 28 points , 10-of10 from the line. 

La’Karis Salter hit a dozen off the bench with 10 rebounds, seven defensive. Only Howard seemed engaged offensively for UK, 20 points, five 3s, but 7-of-20 overall.

There was no traction in either side. UK led 9-6 after one. Each side scored nine in the second quarter. It was a season-low half for each side.

But the underdog Rebels were steadily showing confidence.

They won the third, 17-15. They withstood falling behind by eight.

Then came the closing quarter, the visitors won the important quarter by 10.

They did what Tennessee could not. The Rebels did not panic.

With 3:12 to go, it was 44-all. Allen made two free throws. 

There were muffs and fumbles on both sides. 

A precious minute slipped away. 

Salter tipped one in for a four-point lead but Howard answered with a jumper. 

Allen hit two at the line, then two more and the lead was six with 32 seconds to go. Sessom hit an Ole Miss free throw.

Howard hit a long 3 but not enough time was left. 

They fouled Allen and she hit two more to end it. Her season-long 80 percent from the line held up. 

She had scored 28, second-best of anyone in a conference game.

UK scored 30 less than its average. A real stunner.

Coach Yo survived some gamesmanship even before the start.

UK did not inform her Morris was not playing, insinuating the player made the call at game time.

No matter. 

The Rebel coach said she worries about her team, not the chicanery on the other bench.

She never assumes a win.

“I can never feel that before because we’ve been in games and we’ve lost it, and actually, I don’t even talk about winning the game until the last four minutes, three minutes of the game, because there are so many steps to get there to start talking about winning the game,” she said.

“But, when we got a rhythm and started making shots, and I was able to look in my players’ eyes and even when we didn’t get a call out of bounds and they assured me everything was going to be OK, I felt like we would be able to pull it out.

“I don’t think one game in the SEC should sway your thoughts. When they beat Tennessee  . . .  this is the SEC. You have to come to play every night, and so it just happened to be our night and I’m extremely proud of my team.”

Mitchell stuck to the story that having Morris warm up was not just a distraction.

He also said the 17-of-64 from the field was more on them than on the Ole Miss defense.

“It’s not typical of what we’ve been doing, we’ve shot the ball really well this year,” he said.

“ I just think mentally we were clearly not at the standard we’ve set as a team. 

“They are such a great group of kids who work so hard, so a day like this is very unexpected. We couldn’t get anything going for us because we just couldn’t get out of the gate and play with effort and energy, so everything as far as what we were lacking today, it really starts and ends there.

“ I think we missed a lot of layups, and just lacking focus and energy. Clearly, we have to do a better job.”

The win and the loss due to injuries balanced out and Kentucky remained where they started in the national poll.

Missouri visits, then Kentucky is at also unranked Texas A&M in a traditionally tough battle.

 

No. 20 Tennessee (12-4)

No. 16 Kentucky, with a real grinder of a start to the conference season, came in for the best league matchup of the week, two ranked 1-1 teams.

 All that was sure was one of them would lose a deadly second league game in a row.

Tennessee won both games last season, six of the past seven and was 23-3 in the series.

Coach Holly Warlick swears the offense looks good in practice. Effortless, even. Maybe the defense is that bad then.

Tennessee tried to push tempo, which was just fine with the Kats. They took three straight turnovers to a fast start, 22-5.

That had already decided the 73-72 game. UT had closed the quarter with a 14-11 deficit but the damage was done, again at home.

A singular example: Meme Jackson, a UT senior, had been averaging 20 points a game. Then she went 0-for-9 in the home loss to Missouri. She was 1-of-7 in this one. 

UT was hitting 27 percent to UK’s 52, so it wasn’t all on the defense as the Lady Vols seemed willing to erase any doubt they’d win the conference this season, at home against a lower-ranked team. Well, not lower ranked anymore.

The former UT grad assistant, UK coach Matthew Mitchell, was there when Pat Summitt stifled all such insurrections within conference. 

Senior Maci Morris hit 5-of-6 (3of-3 3s) for 14 early points. A win here would be a capper on her career conference frustrations. 

Similarly, senior guard Taylor Murray scored 11 in support. But Murray and UT rookie Zaay Green got tangled diving for a loose ball and Murray was done. 

She eventually limped to the bench with a massive ice pack on her left knee.

Among the problems of a young team, UT has no such historical motivations.

They were doing OK on UK leader Howard. But it is no longer true you can shut down the main player and still expect to win. 

UK rookie Howard leads Kentucky in scoring and rebounding, averaging 17.4 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. 

Since the start of this one, UK had answered every challenge without her help. Maybe the SEC is where rookiness shows up.

She fouled out of this one.

Tennessee could only knock the lead to 10. 

Reserve Mimi Collins scored 11 as the starters were stagnant. One free throw was the total home scoring in the final two minutes. 

UT needed a run of its own just to be competitive. 

Tennessee had not scored as few all season.

They could not do enough. It was still eight with seven and a half minutes left.

Finally, Tennessee chipped it back to a doable four points with five minutes left.

 This was the ballgame. 

They were winning the fourth, 16-8, but stayed six back. and never took the lead.

Even a 25-15 fourth was not enough. Kentucky prevailed. It is Tennessee’s most disappointing start in years.

Sophomore guard Davis leads the Lady Vols. 15.5 points per game and 8.4 rebounds with 20 steals. She scored two in the first half. She finished with 12.

Classmate Evina Westbrook is also averaging 15.5 points per game with a team-best 74 assists. But she started with five points and five turnovers as the point guard. 

She finished somewhat stronger, 20 points, 5-of-5 free throws. If your leading scorer is just average, they win. They won rebounds by 18 and it did not matter.

Morris fouled out with 27 points but the Kats held on to stifle all the momentum talk. 

UK won with is three best players on the bench down the stretch. 

UT still could not overcome.

Jaida Roper hit a 3 in the final minute and scored two free throws to keep the lead at five each time. Westbrook hit a 3 with two seconds left after Davis had missed.

They drew 8,135, a game-to-game attendance decline of about a thousand.

Warlick said, “We couldn’t overcome a lot of things we didn’t do.”

In the beginning, she said, “We weren’t committed to the defensive end.”

She said, down the stretch they were solid but not starting solid and not being focused around the basket did them in.

The Vols obviously can get better. For now, they are barely in the league upper echelon.

Mitchell said, “We had a lot of toughness and beat a really talented and tough Tennessee team. It is a great win for us, and we are proud of our players for hanging in.

“Everything did not go our way tonight. There were plenty of times that we could have been turned back. We just kept coming at it and fighting. I am really proud of our players and the way we played tonight. 

“There was a lot of toughness, a lot of grit, intensity, and we played good enough defense out there to win it. I am proud of our team.

“We had trouble on the boards, there is no question about it. I have to take ownership of that. We just need to emphasize that on a level where we can compete. We are not where we want to be and we have to get better at that.

“We started together as a group in June and talked about not what we did not have, but what we did have. 

“We have some high character people on the team that want to win and work really hard. We just try to stay focused on being tough and sticking together. 

“We really stuck together tonight, just tremendous adversity, we were all concerned at halftime about Taylor. We did not have her back, and she is such a big part of what we do.

“We made a few more plays, kept our poise, and made one more play than Tennessee. I would characterize it as sticking together and believing. 

“We talked about confidence before the game, and I think we were able to maintain our confidence through really difficult periods during the game. The play could describe it better than I could.”

 He is optimistic Murray will play again.

“We are hopeful,” he said. “We appreciate UT and their doctor looking at her. We are really hopeful that it is good news. I will put it this way, sometimes you know already, and we do not know, so we are hopeful.” 

Morris said, “The second half just showed me how much our team has in toughness. Jaida was frustrated in the first half and came out in the second half and played amazing. 

“She hit some huge shots for us and battled through adversity. She came up big for us as well as others. I was super proud of our team, and we are only going to get better from here.”

Next for the Vols was a road trip to Georgia, another team trying to avoid two league losses.

The Bulldogs entered 9-0 at home. They were enthused by the effort at Starkville.

Their best players underneath are senior Caliya Robinson and redshirt sophomore Jenna Staiti, who’is second in the league in blocks with 37 total this season, while Robinson ranks fourth (32). They are unranked since December.

In the past five games, Staiti is shooting 61 percent (25-of-41) from the floor and 80 percent from 3-point range (4-of-5) to average 12.4 points per game over that span.

The early difference in this one was Tennessee did mot fall out in the first quarter as they had done in the losses. 

They concentrated on defense, even taking a charge on a breakaway as the Dawgs hit a quarter of their shots.

  UT led 22-10 at the first quarter.

Westbrook hit 4-of-5. 

For Georgia, Robinson was hassled well by freshman Zaay Green and was 4-of-10.

UT maintained, showing the ability to win every game or lose every game. The led was 14 as the second quarter progressed. 

Taylor was preaching rebounds, but UT was actually getting them, 10 ahead.

Still, UTs rollercoaster was just boarding.

Tennessee panicked again.

 Georgia caught up at 43.

 UT had not lost three games in succession in 33 seasons. 

Only Warlick was around then. 

Tennessee had 14 turnovers and five third-quarter points when Georgia took the lead qt 45-43. 

A single-digit quarter is usually doom. 

Tennessee barely avoided it by losing the quarter 25-11 and thus setting up the 66-62 overall loss.

The 5,867 in attendance became a factor. 

Tennessee was clearly rattled. No one could score. 

The Orange party line of “we’re young” is wearing thin. 

They are good enough to be starting in the SEC by somebody’s plan. The shoulda been starting senior point guard was run off to South Carolina.

A third straight close loss is still a loss. 

And it illustrates why the SEC is so competitive.

Robinson had 16 points, six rebounds, five assists and two of six blocks in a critical last-minute possession.

With the Bulldogs leading 63-62, Robinson blocked Westbrook's layup attempt with 19.6 seconds remaining and then she blocked Rennia Davis' short jumper with one second on the shot clock. 

Davis finished 10 points below her 15.5 average.

Tennessee couldn't get a shot off before the shot clock expired. The Lady Vols had to foul twice to get Staiti, a 55-percent free-throw shooter, to the foul line, where she made both with 8.5 seconds remaining.

Tennessee went 9-of-18 from the line, at one stretch missing seven in a row. They were 3-of-10 in the fourth. Warlick will say they have free throws every practice. What she is never asked is how many they hit.

Westbrook scored 23 – 10 in the fourth -- and that was about it for UT.

“We took care of the basketball,” Georgia coach Joni Taylor said. “We had players make big shots. Taja (Cole) makes big shots, and then when she got into foul trouble Gabby (Connally) took over and made big shots.

“Caliya has been huge for us the last two games, and Jenna is continuing to come on and be steady for us.

“We battled very hard in the first half,” Warlick said. “The second half we let them take balls out of our hand and let up a little on the defensive end.

“In the first half in the paint it was five of nine, in the second it was six for 19. In the fourth quarter we were three of 10 from the free throw line Georgia was tougher than us in the second half.

“We gotta grow up a little.”

She said the team lost some confidence.

“When we did run in the second half we missed some layups we usually make.”

Westbrook said, “All the shots we were taking were makable shots.”

Warlick said they have a good game plan.

“I think we let our offense affect our defense and we gotta get past that,” she said.

UT goes to unranked Alabama, then Arkansas visits before it incredibly interrupts its conference season for a home whooping against No. 1 Notre Dame.

The losses knocked UT down six spots, tied at 20 in the national poll, the biggest slide of the week, out of the Top 10 for good to the bottom of the Top 20.  

They don’t even deserve that. 

Just a few seasons ago, they finished unranked.

 It is sad for the fans and another smear on tradition. 

They are now just another Sweet 16 team and will not play at home in the eliminations. 

They are behind three unranked teams in conference play, with South Carolina’s quality wins coming in conference, so they surpass UT nationally.