Mike Siroky’s SEC Report: The Final No One Saw Coming

By Mike Siroky

 

The finals are set. 

The best conference in women’s basketball – the Southeastern – saw Mississippi State continued its domination with only one loss in league play this season, stopping Missouri.  

The Arkansas fun run continues. 

The No. 10 seed Razorbacks earned a title shot by ending Texas A&M’s life without league leading scorer Chennedy Carter.

 It is Arkansas’s first SEC final.

The importance of the coaching matchup is these are two old friends, both having started as assistants under A&M coach Gary Blair.

This afternoon, top seed State tries to qualify for an NCAA top seed. Everyone else awaits the NCAA eliminations, announced a bit more than a week from now. 

Semifinals

No. 1 seed Mississippi State 76, No. 5 seed Missouri 56.

No. 10 seed Arkansas 58, No. 3 seed Texas A&M 51.

Mississippi State 71, Missouri  56

The Bulldogs got the rare chance for a revenge match within the same season. The Tigers had won at State for the only visiting win there.

Teaira McCowan had 27 points and 16 rebounds. Senior classmate  Anriel Howard also doubled, 19 points and 10 rebounds. 

The national No. 5 killed the unranked foe with  methodical certainty, 71-56. 

It is State’s fourth consecutive finals appearance. Schaefer immediately urged his team to take that step to a title, this senior class having lost the past three championship games to South Carolina.

“I’m tired of having confetti hit my backside as I walk to the locker room,” Schaefer said. “It’s one more for the rest of your life. What have you got?”

In the pregame speech, he had told them they had to bring toughness, “Because they’re going to be as tough as we have been on our best day.”

McCowan and Howard  not only go for the 30th win we projected weeks ago before the NCAAs, but have combined for 89 points and 45 rebounds in two tournament games. 

And the two are developing a stronger bond each time, Schaefer said.

“They’re finally getting some chemistry between them,” Schaefer said. “Enjoying the success of each other.”

McCowan is the 6-foot-7 force underneath, a true All-American. Howard is a grad transfer from Texas A&M. 

Her arrival completed a second set of four senior starters as State reloaded after two straight National Championship game appearances.

“To be able to be out there together every day (at practice), you’ll get chemistry eventually,” Howard said. “We’re showing we can be a pretty good duo.”

She also has to be enjoying  not being the only focus in her last season.

Missouri’s Sophie Cunningham scored a season-high 33, with five of the Tigers’ nine 3s before fouling out inside of the last 90 seconds. She had hit four straight free throws, so State attacked and got rid of her.

The Tigers (23-10) actually bettered Mississippi State down low in that first encounter, McCowan hampered by fouls. 

This time, McCowan and Howard were relentless in attacking the basket. State doubled up Missouri in points in the paint, 48-24. McCowan and Howard each played 39 minutes.

Tigers coach Robin Pingeton said her team tried to attack McCowan with constant double teams and even triple teams.

“We had our hands full,” she said. “We just didn’t do a good job with that.”

When Missouri cut a 16-point lead down to 43-38 off Cunningham’s 11 straight points late in the third quarter, SEC Player of the Year McCowan powered an 11-3 surge with eight points.

The Bulldogs got it rolling in the second quarter after allowing a 14-11 deficit after one.

McCowan led the 21-12 second quarter, all from close in. Howard stepped outside, with a 3 and one a step jumper to put State up by 13.  McCowan had her 26th double/double at intermission 12 points and 10 rebounds. and it was about over. They ended with 10-of-11 free throws and won rebounds by 12.

McCowan said all she knows is she doubles “a lot. I really don’t follow that stuff. We just have to keep doing what we have been doing, play hard.”

Schaefer said “ It was on the board. If it’s pretty ball today, we’re in trouble,

“When we moved Anriel onto Cunningham we did a better job. You gotta make them do some things out of character. No pretty plays. We forced 17 turnovers and we only had five. I really talked to Teaira about playing careful. She did. We had a lot of them out there with hands on their hips and I pointed that out to my staff.

“For us, we were just focusing on one more.  That’s our motto.”

“Anriel gives us 100 percent every day. She ain’t gonna calm down. It is infectious in practice and in games.”

If there is a Sunday win, McCowan and Jazzmun Holmes will have 130 career wins, fourth-best of their era Howard has 99 career wins.

With more games to come, Missouri seniors have at least one final appearance.

Opening night, the SEC telecasters tried to tell us 3,148 was a great crowd. No comment on the second day’s 1,138. The top seed and in-state team attracted 4,431 for the quarterfinals. This one drew 5,813 with South Carolina no longer around to attract in-state fans to Greenevile.

Arkansas 58, Texas A&M 51.

Arkansas coach Mike Neighbors knows 19 wins and a legitimate chance to win 20, even in the NCAAs, benchmarks his team. 

His side is always the underdog, unranked nationally. He reversed from 13-18 to 19-13 in one season.

He has won his team’s mindset. All of them said the way to win this one was to not focus on who was missing, but who was playing.

Chelsee Dungee, averaging 21.6, scored 17. Her 3 in the final minute pushed away from a 52-50 lead when they had finally got in front. It was their only field goal in the final 4:12. Junior point guard Jailyn Mason averaged 6.9 points all season but scored 15 here. Alexis Toelfree scored 11.

They only shot 33 percent from the floor, but held A&M to 38, sacrificing their own offense for defense. 

They erased a 16-point deficit from the first half.

They lost that half, won the third by a point, but tightened down in a 20-6 fourth. The bench won the reserves comparison, 16-0.

Without league leading scorer Chennedy Carter– rehabbing a sprained finger, she will be back for the NCAA experience -- Jada Walton kept it all sophomore starters. The loss of Carter has been magnificently spun away by coach Gary Blair.

N’dea Jones and Kayla Wells each scored 14. Wells fouled out with a minute left, which made the ending unbalanced.

Not many remember the Aggies (24-6) were the SEC tournament champs before South Carolina won the most-recent three.

Blair said a focus was to get the ball more to Cierra Johnson. She scored 18 with three blocks. His team said it was to keep the score in the 60s, not to let Arkansas’ supersonic flight push it to the 90s.

“They played even with us after the first quarter. They out-toughed us. They got rebounds and long rebounds. That’s what championship teams do,” Blair said.

“We had 26 turnover last night and 21 tonight. Cierra has got to be ready to finish or make the pass, It was what champions do. She held their top players to five points. Five points.

“There was not one officiating call that hurt us. (Cierra) will work on her passing skills and I will work on my coaching skills. Dungee made that 3 on a play everyone runs.

“Heck with someone’s computer. They deserve to be in the NCAA tournament. We got beat by the hottest team in the SEC. Not the best team, but the hottest team.

Of Neighbors, he said, “He’s one of the most innovative coaches in our game.  He gives back to the game.”

“I’m not even coaching basketball, without him,” Neighbors said of Blair. “He

 took a chance on me when I was a stupid high school coach who thought he knew everything.

“I hate to play against him, but I knew one of us was going to be in the championship game.

“I walked in at halftime and I was tired. They were not. That energized me. We just have to play well and hope they don’t. We’ll  be playing on adrenaline.”