Mike Siroky’s SEC Report: Major Upset Ends First Round

By Mike Siroky

Three of the four opening round games of the toughest conference tournament in America – the Southeastern – followed the expected path.

But the nightcap saw a nationally ranked team fall and may have realigned the invitations to the NCAA eliminations.

Quarterfinals kick in Friday. 

The top four seeds begin play and will be favored. They are nationally ranked, Two others are also ranked. Two of the recent traditional qualifiers are gone.

The NCAA is rumored to be looking for at least seven invitees. The upset loser is definitely in. So the best six that play today, with an outside shot of one more are likely in.

LSU 71, Mississippi State 62

This ends the SEC run of State. 

They have a new coach and she has not directed it well. The good thing is they are all underclassman so a recovery season can rescue the reputation.

LSU is still under .500. There has been a debate because one national website has them still in the NCAAs.

They are in the quarterfinals as the No. 8 seed taking on the No. 1 seed. They ae the only team to defeat Texas A&M, in overtime at home. A&M bested them last week by

Junior transfer Ryann Payne led LSU against State.

 She hit career-highs in points, rebounds and assists. She finished with 17 points, four rebounds and three assists. She and junior Sarah Shematsi came off the bench for a combined 30 points, the winning edge. Shematsi hit four key 3s and scored 13 points.

Senior Kayla Pointer scored 14.

Redshirt senior Faustine Aifuwa led the Tigers in rebounding with 12. She also added nine points, just missing a double for the day.

The win ended a nine-game losing streak against the Bulldogs that started in 2015-16 season, underlining State’s erosion.

Sophomore Tiara Young got LSU on the scoreboard with a pair of free throws. State responded with the next eight points.

LSU had its run, 9-4, tying it with 1:11 remaining in the quarter, including a Shematsi 3 to cut MSU's lead to 11-9.

State led at the quarter stop, 15-13.

Payne started the second quarter with  a 3 and the teams went back and forth. Two free throws from senior Karli Seay put LSU up, 22-19. They pushed the lead to six, then settled for a 23-29 at halftime.

Young and Pointer gave LSU a 37-31 lto start the third. It was a seven-point edge with four minutes left in the quarter, then 10 at the start of the fourth.

The final quarter started slowly. The lead was nine with six minutes left in the game.

LSU coach Nikki Fargas said, “We wanted to take the mistakes that we made in our previous game and make sure it didn't happen again. We talked about being that team that becomes a 40-minute team. 

“We’ve been that team that’s played 30 minutes, and I’m so proud of this group because they stayed focused and stayed locked into what we needed to do.

“To be able to see Ryann (Payne) and her path and her journey to get here and what she endured, as far as surgery and getting herself healthy. She just kept working out and kept wanting to get experience. 

“I'm thinking, 'If you can go, it's gonna be more than experience that we are gonna need you to get. We are going to need you to help us to win'. 

“Her energy and just her bounce is so contagious. “With Sarah, we have always known she can shoot the lights out. Her confidence is at a high right now. They both did a nice job of playing off of each other. They allowed us to spread the floor more, which allowed us to get some penetration and post touches. To have plays that are threats from the perimeter makes our offensive execution looks a whole lot better.

“I’ve always thought our team had fight in us. There’re times where we would lose our focus and go off and do our own thing. The fight of our team, we maintained it. 

“I can’t say enough about the energy we felt from the bench. They were into it; they were engaged and that uplifted us. That’s why we were able to come away with this win because it was about us as LSU and as a team.”

Rickea Jackson and Jessika Carter each scored14 for State (10-9).

in the quarterfinals, the early bird special is No. 2  Texas A&M, the top seed. LSU is 8-9, A&M is 22-1.

Kentucky 73, Florida 64

Rhyne Howard played a steady game, leading the No. 5 seed Kats to its second round with No. 4 Georgia. That’s a good rivalry. Kentucky won at Georgia’s home finale last week, then lost the No, 3 seed at home when Mississippi swept them on the last day of the season.

Kentucky is No. 17 in America. Florida remains a nice work in progress and should earn a national ranking next season.

Florida (11-13) had eliminated Auburn in the play-in game. The result had Auburn end its nine-year run with coach Terri  Williams-Flournoy. Her husband an assistant coach, was also axed. Assitant 

La’Keshia Freet Meredith, in her second season, is the nominal interim. There is at least one SEC opening, a regine change we foreshadowed all season.

Florida coach Cam Newbauer was very busy as his top two assistants were left at home due to Covid considerations.

His senior, KeKe Smith kept them in it all by herself. She scored a career-high 36 on her final Gator day, 

UK’s Howard scored 27, with six rebounds and four assists. Senior KeKe McKinney had 10 points, eight rebounds and two assists. Freshman Treasure Hunt had one of her best games of the season with nine points, seven rebounds and four assists.

Kentucky’s Jazmine Massengill opened with a 3, Hioward scored the next five, then Florida answered with a 6-0 spurt to put it at  10-8 lead with 6:07 left in the first period.

Smith hit a basket and 3 for the Gators, making the quarter score 17-15 lead. 

Smith had 15 points in the first quarter and Howard 10.

In the second period, Florida extended its lead to 20-15 on a corner jumper from Brynn Farrell and a free throw by Nina Rickards. But the Cats got a jumper from Dre'una Edwards and a three-point play from Howard to tie the game at 20 with 7:14 left in the half.

Hunt hit a corner 3 to give UK a 26-23 advantage. Rickards scored four straight for Florida, giving the Gators a 27-26 lead with 2:53 left in the half.

Kentucky responded with a 7-2 run, capped by a Chasity Patterson layup with 1:02 left. But Smith hit a t3 with 24 seconds left in the half. The Kats led at the break, 33-32. Smith led all scorers with 18 first-half points. Howard had 16.

In the second half,  the Gators got five straight from Smith to lead 41-37 with 5:32 in the third.

Florida led, 49-46, after three periods.

The Kats led by two with 7:50 to play.

From there, the lead would go back and forth until the Kats scored seven in a row to lead 71-62 with 1:19 remaining.

Smith led all scorers with 36 points but she was the only Gator in double figures.

UK coach Kyra Elzy said, “Well, the thing about this game, Georgia is a tough team. They are aggressive defensively. They're well-coached. We'll be in another dogfight. I do think it does help we just played them. 

“Obviously there's some things, areas in which we can get better. We'll go back and reevaluate the film together as a staff. But one key thing we'll have to do tomorrow is rebound the basketball.”

Alabama 82, Missouri 74

Each member of the Tide starting five hit double figures for the first time. They combined for 79 points. The Tide (14-0) advances to play top seed South Carolina.

Alabama scored 25 in the fourth quarter.

Ariyah Copeland led the Tide's quintet in double figures with 22 points and 10 rebounds. Megan Abrams scored a season-high 19, nine scored in the final quarter, with five assists. Jordan Lewis had 16 points and four assists. Hannah Barber and Jasmine Walker added 11 apiece, Barber with a team-high seven assists.

Sophomore Aijah Blackwell scored 28 for Missouri (9-11). The Tigers hit 14-of-30 3s.

Alabama shot 51 percent from the floor. The Tide hit 24-of-30 from the line.

Alabama made its first eight shots from the field, led by as many as 13 in the first and ended up 10, 28-18, at the quarter break.

Seven unanswered by Missouri cut the lead to six midway through the second. That’s as close as it got, 40-34, at the half.

But Alabama was shut out for six-minutes in the third and the Tigers recovered to tie it at 57 with a quarter to go,

Alabama coach Kristy Curry said, “Well, it's what we can do when we get clicking. To have five in double figures for the first time this season, that's great to see. 

“We’ve been waiting on that kind of game. I thought our kids didn’t want to go home. I think they learned from a year ago that wasn’t a very good feeling.”

Mississippi 69, Arkansas 60

Arkansas, No. 13 in the nation, is the first Top 15 team to lose in a conference tournament, flopping dramatically, hitting none of their usual stat lines.

They had swept No. 17 Kentucky, but this was No. 11 seed Mississippi’s biggest upset of the season, over the No. 6 seed. 

In terms of the SEC tournament, it was phenomenal for a team that hadn’t even played more than one game in recent seasons and for Arkansas which has won two games in each recent tournament.

Statistical averages had Arkansas outscoring Mississippi by 20.

It stops the Razorbacks from winning their 20^th. It lifts Mississippi to 12-10 which means they cannot have a losing season.

Chelsea Dungee got to her average 22 points but only by taking 24 shots, 3-of-11 3s. She had five turnovers. Destiny Slocum had a better second half and finished with 14, two below her average. Amber Ramirez scored 10, four below her average.

All talk of Dungee being among the best players in the league her senior season was exposed as she was outplayed by Shakira Austin in this game alone. 

The one-year player transferred in from Maryland exceeded her statistical averages with 29 points, 9-of-9 at the line and 14 defensive rebounds. Austin averaged 17.9 points and 8.7 rebounds. And she sat down for seven minutes of the contest. 

Donetta Johnson was the other Rebel in double figures, with 12, her average.

Arkansas associate head coach Todd Schaefer said “They set her up. The made it very difficult for us. They made us drive it to Austin and she stood there.

“Really disappointed because we have to wait 10 days for Selection Monday. 

“We can’t let this define our season or add emphasis to one game. We played ourselves into the NCAA tournament. This is not the end of the world.”

The No. 13 Razorbacks have the most games played in America. But the No. 6 seed was trounced by the No. 11 seed and Ole Miss advances to play No. 3 seed Tennessee, No. 14 in America.

Mississippi has not played a second game at the tournament since 2007.

The Rebels moved up a notch this season, with four  SEC wins after being shutout last season.

With seven seniors, this is an all-in season for Arkansas. They will reload as much as rebuild next season, but this one featured Dungee, a scorer from both the field and the line.  She has hit 162 free throws at an 80 percent rate.

Amber Ramirez time and again had taken the offense, deflected from the double teams on Dungee, to shoot .457 for her 42 3s. She is 80 percent from the line. She did not shoot a free throw this night.

Destiny Slocum had 100 steals. She had one in this game. Makayla Daniels averages 11.8 with 66 assists. She scored seven with one assist.

Coach Mike Neighbors, whose outlook on his game is unique. He is also not afraid to praise others, as when he used his season-ending press conference to praise Texas A&M’s Gary Blair.

Mississippi’s future is in rookie of the year Madison Scott, its first McDonald’s All-America of this coaching regime. She had performance issues, scoring one basket.

The win means the quarterfinals have five of eight teams nationally ranked. No other conference has that.

Ole Miss brought full court pressure to stop the break from the beginning. Arkansas missed its first four shots. Dungee fed Ramirez on a 3 then banked one in her ownself to break that up.

Both teams were hitting about 20 percent from the field which favored the underdogs as it allowed them to hang in. And it slowed the game to their pace

A time out let Neighbors discuss rhythm and plays. But it was 17-7 at the end of one, already a lead large enough to win. An uh-oh moment was coming. Ole Miss was confident and Arkansas was confused. It looked like so many of the Razorbacks’ eight league losses.

Austin had eight, 3-of-4 from the field. Dungee had one basket. She had burned the argument that maybe she is the true best player in the conference. They don’t lose to the third-worst team in the league.

Time to get off the struggle bus and into the game or this would be the biggest tournament upset in years.

They pulled it to a five-point difference at the half. Dungee scored 10 in the quarter, two 3s. The team was 4-of-15 from outside.

Ramirez had seven and Slocum 3.

Austin had 16 with six rebounds.

No one wanted to steer to start the second half, everyone just riding along.

They cut it to one at the end of three. Slocum had scored eight. 

This is the lowest Arkansas score of the season. 

Tennessee had to rework its scouting report. Coach Kellie Harper was at the game to see the Arkansas mishap for herself.

Neighbors said, “Yeah, I did a really bad job of getting them prepared for that. We ran into a team that was playing with a lot to play for, a ton of energy. 

“I didn’t do a very good job of preparing them for what it felt like. This group has been coming down here the last couple years with that type of hunger. 

“Tonight it was against us. That’s what happens in these things. That’s on me because I’ve been through it; they haven’t. 

“But we’ll make sure that doesn’t happen in the NCAA tournament. 

“Ole Miss was very, very focused. They really made it hard on us to function offensively, obviously with a seven-point first quarter, we were fighting uphill all night from that point on. Their bench, their sideline, everything, just was really what you expect out of a team that’s playing with a chance to get into the NCAA tournament. 

“We’re going to stay tonight, not be in any rush to get back home. Have a meeting. We’ve always used the rule that whenever you get beat out, we're off till that Monday. We’ll reconvene on Monday, start the NCAA protocol with testing and start making sure we’ve got our legs under us. 

“That’s the most important thing going into the NCAA tournament, that we're healthy and happy. This one will sting a little bit. Just left the locker room.

“They’re not broken. They’re just stunned a little bit, a good lesson learned. 

“Well, (Ole Miss) can guard you. Their big kid can guard your point guard. If she comes out in the draft, she’s going to be picked so high because she can guard 1-through-5

“That’s what makes her so special. It really made our driving lanes tough. We got a little frustrated at times. I thought early on we took some shots that were a little bit uncharacteristic because we were frustrated. You don’t have to watch us very long to know that when our offense is frustrated, we get frustrated a little bit defensively, too. 

“There’s a lot of carryover to that. They took big-time advantage of that. So, yeah, their defense was unbelievable. It was well-prepared, well-scouted. I didn’t make enough subtle adjustments to give us a chance, to be ready early. It was too late to come back from that first-quarter deficit.

“ I cannot wait to play somebody from another conference. I just can’t wait (laughter). It has been an absolute night-in, night-out test of everything that you’re made of, unique styles, great players.

“You saw it with Shakira Austin tonight. Just great players night in, night out. I know we’re still going to see good teams, but it’s going to be nice to play somebody that doesn't know all your play calls, have all your tendencies down, have the scouting report written on you. 

“The SEC is phenomenal. It shows you that any of our teams anywhere can beat anybody in the league. It’s a testament to our league. It's going to prepare our league for the NCAA tournament. I think you're going to see some teams from our league have great success in the tournament.”

Mississippi coach Yolette McPhee-McCuin said,  “First of all, shoutout to Arkansas, coach Neighbors. 

“They’re going to do well in the tournament. I have an incredible amount of respect for him. I just know they’re just a tough out in the NCAA tournament. 

“As far as we’re concerned, we made adjustments. I told you, I didn't know that team. 

“I don’t know what we did in Arkansas, but I know we didn’t think about it and we focused on shrinking the gaps, making Dungee take really tough shots. Our defensive intensity and our rotation was so good that we were able to wear them down. When they needed those 3s, they didn't have the legs to shoot it.

In the second quarter, “Yeah, I mean, I liked how we finished the quarter. That was not, honestly, a time in the game where I felt like, ‘Oh, man, this is getting out of control.’ 

“I would have used a timeout. I just didn't feel that way. Even when they got it down one, we felt confidence in our defensive performance. 

“That's because that's how we started the game, and that's how we finished the first quarter. We really felt confident. I hope I made my guys down there at Florida State proud. We pattern our defense from Florida State’s men’s basketball. We knew that if we got our hands on the line, we jumped to the moon, we challenged passes, we just felt like we would have a chance.

Austin, she said, “Was just incredible. I mean, this is why a young lady leaves a team like Maryland and comes to Ole Miss, to do stuff like this, to have an incredible legacy, to make her statement. 

“We think she’s one of the best players in the conference. Obviously they think that, as well. 

“I thought her leadership, I know her points looked good, but her leadership and her presence on the floor was just phenomenal

“We’re a fun team to watch. They say we got to win games. We took care of business tonight. We’re focused on Tennessee. We played them well at Tennessee. Ended up losing that game by one point at their place. 

“They’re going to be primed and ready to go, but so are we. We’re just going to take it 10 minutes at a time. 

“I mean, win or go home. We got to control what we can control. Here’s another point I want to make for our case. That's an Arkansas team that beat UConn, you know? That is a legitimate team. 

“They’re going to be a 3 seed, and we beat ‘em. My young pups, I had four freshmen on the floor at one time. We are a team that can go in the NCAA tournament and create havoc. 

“The SEC is that strong. So they say they look at your last seven to 10 games. We beat Kentucky, we lost to Tennessee by one, 10-point game versus A&M. We’re just building our case. It is what it is. 

“It's COVID season. Tomorrow we're going to focus and try to see if we can control our fate a little bit. 

At Tennessee, “Well, I remember we had a considerable lead, then we let it go because they got loose in transition on us. They got some transition baskets. I felt like that hurt us. 

“Then I remember us fouling with like 30-something seconds to go, putting them at the free-throw line to win the game. If we could not do those two things, we’re going to be fine. 

“We rebounded well. We did a lot of good things offensively. We’re just going to have to compete. They’re a really good team, too. 

“That’s the SEC, though. But our girls feel confident about that game. That’s when we started to turn the corner. That was the game where we started to be, like, maybe we are legit. 

“So we're a different team now. We're excited about the opportunity. 

“Listen, you get punched a couple times, if you have any type of toughness in you, you’re going to swing back. I thought we got our fair share of punches in this conference. I think, again, it’s the leadership of Shakira. 

“When she’s confident and she lets her team know she trusts them, they follow it. They have believed in her from Day 1. When she got eligible, they all jumped and piled on top of her and was excited. It matters to them how she feels about them. The way she shared the ball, just encouraging them, giving them that motivation I thought carried them through. 

“My quote before the game is, ‘What you think is what you are.’

“ I said it even during the game, As the game goes, it gets tough, as I think it, that’s what I am. If you think, ‘Oh, man, this is going bad,’ that’s what’s going to happen. 

“When they cut it to one, I looked in my team’s eye, they didn’t budge. One thing we’re going to pack in our suitcase is our defense. We did that tonight. We felt confident. 

“Even if it had been a tied game going into the fourth, we felt confident we would be able to get stops. Holding that team to eight points in the fourth, how could you not look at us? 

“A couple things. Experience is one hell of a teacher. That’s first of all. Experience does that. You got to grow through things. You know how people say you got to go through things? I believe you got to grow through things. Those losses, the crazy travel, all that, we felt like it paid off for us right now. You want your team playing their best basketball right now. “That's the first. The second is, our team started understanding that no one’s going to give us anything. 

“If they want it, they got to go take it. And then they started understanding that they’re in these games with these teams. So we have like this little joke going on. If we beat a ranked team, so I think Kentucky was 16, I’m like, ‘If Kentucky is 16, then we’re 15. 

“So tonight we're like, ‘If Arkansas is 13,’  then the whole team goes, ‘That means we're No. 12 (laughter)!’ 

“It’s what you think, it’s what you believe. 

“We’re just having fun. It’s a fun group. My freshmen don’t know what they don’t know. That’s a good thing sometimes. That’s what it is. It’s no special sauce, it's just them being connected.”

Madison Scoot, her freshman of the year in the league, got bonked on the head and was on the bench for the endgame.

“She's fine,” McPhee-MfCuin said. “She needed that. She'll be ready for tomorrow (smiling).